Christians what do you think of Euthanasia? Is it always wrong?

It is a personal choice to take away one's pain and suffering. It would be pretty ruthless if God would consider taking you own life because of too much pain a sin.

What does the bible have to say about this?

Imobus 爱: Christians what do you think of Euthanasia? Is it always wrong?

It is a personal choice to take away one's pain and suffering. It would be pretty ruthless if God would consider taking you own life because of too much pain a sin.

What does the bible have to say about this?

The Catholic Church and Euthanasia

The Essentials of the Catholic Church’s Stance on Controversial Issues
Catholicism regards life as sacred, and taking any innocent life is immoral and sinful. The Catholic Church uses same principles to condemn euthanasia as it does to condemn abortion.

The Church believes that no one needs or ought to suffer a long, painful death, and that the sick must be treated and the dying must be comforted. The dying and those suffering enormous pain from disease or injury or can and should have as much painkiller medication as they can tolerate, as long as the medication isn’t the cause of death. Modern medicine has created a plethora of chemicals to diminish or even remove pain, even if it means the patient loses consciousness. So giving someone morphine is permitted and encouraged, for example, but the dosage can’t be large enough to be the direct cause of death.

The Church distinguishes between two types of euthanasia: In active euthanasia, you cause death by actively giving a person something to hasten death. In passive euthanasia, you cause death by not doing what’s necessary to preserve or sustain life. In more detail:

Active: Any procedure or treatment that directly causes the death of a patient. Giving someone a lethal injection or drinking poison are examples. This type is always considered immoral and sinful because it’s the direct taking of an innocent life.

Passive: Intentionally withholding life-sustaining treatment. If the treatment is sustaining life and stopping or removing it ends life, then doing so is considered passive euthanasia. For example, turning off a respirator that’s being used by a patient whose lungs won’t work on their own is passive euthanasia. Like active euthanasia, passive euthanasia is considered immoral and sinful, because its primary purpose is the death of an innocent person. The means are different, however.

The Church also distinguishes between direct and indirect passive euthanasia:

Direct passive: Intentionally causing death by withholding medicine or a procedure or stopping one that’s begun. This type is always immoral.

Indirect passive: Withholding treatment or medicine that may cause death, but death isn’t the intent or direct cause of withholding it. This type isn’t considered immoral. For example, an elderly man dying of cancer who’s also diabetic can refuse (or his family can refuse) insulin injections as long as he’s already started the dying process and will die of cancer or complications of it well before he’d die of diabetes. As long as the medicine or treatment being withheld isn’t the direct cause of death, it can be refused.

It’s considered morally permissible to have a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order on the chart in case the patient has a heart attack because doing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) would be fruitless or would only prolong death by cancer.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church clarifies when medical treatment can be refused or stopped: “Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of ‘over-zealous’ treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted.”

m.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-catholic-church-and-euthanasia.html

First and foremost op suicide is absolutely different from euthansia ,and to the poster above well said the link given has said a great deal with many contraductions, and i think there isnt really a difference in the active and passive in the sense that like the analogy given ,turning off of the respirator isnt it like using a lethal way to end a life we both knw by turning of that life support the patient would die so what is the point ?

Nice one Italo, are u a Roman catholic?

spenca: First and foremost op suicide is absolutely different from euthansia ,and to the poster above well said the link given has said a great deal with many contraductions, and i think there isnt really a difference in the active and passive in the sense that like the analogy given ,turning off of the respirator isnt it like using a lethal way to end a life we both knw by turning of that life support the patient would die so what is the point ?

The difference between the active and passive is the intent.

One has directly willed to end a life; the other has genuinely tried to save but has had to accept his inability to do that.

It might be a very fine line between the two but trust me, God sees that line in your heart.

Pastor Olu T: Nice one Italo, are u a Roman catholic?

Thanks. Yes, I'm Catholic. You?

italo:

The difference between the active and passive is the intent.

One has directly willed to end a life; the other has genuinely tried to save but has had to accept his inability to do that.

It might be a very fine line between the two but trust me, God sees that line in your heart.

Dnt 4get terminal diseases cant be cured which the doctor knows before prescribing pills and all so what has he been treating when we all know he has no cure and there is no cure existing also just to show that he puts the patient in a prolonged agony n pain ,

spenca:

Dnt 4get terminal diseases cant be cured which the doctor knows before prescribing pills and all so what has he been treating when we all know he has no cure and there is no cure existing also just to show that he puts the patient in a prolonged agony n pain ,

Let me get your point straight. In relation to the topic, is euthanasia a sin or not?

I dont want to misunderstand you.

italo:

Thanks. Yes, I'm Catholic. You?

kk,
me, nah I am a non denominational man, though I grew up a Baptist.

italo:

Let me get your point straight. In relation to the topic, is euthanasia a sin or not?

I dont want to misunderstand you.

depends on the religion or ethos you looking at it from, but personally i look at it from an utilitarian point of view

There's an indefinitely fuzzy line here, which is only complicated by numerous denominations and translations (all of which are necessarily paraphrasings, and from dead languages from a time long past).

I think modern medicine has created a large gray area where it's unknowable at many points whether a given measure will simply prolong inevitable death (and with it, suffering). Past these points, someone is somewhat on borrowed time, so to speak. Without the measures already invoked, they'd have already died (and their suffering would have ended). Once it's known that all known lines of treatment will inevitably fail, should the patient decide to end their suffering, I think this should be permissible.

There are other situations I take issue with, as well. For instance, this business of indirect euthanasia. If someone is on a respirator, turning it off is sinful? A great majority of these people are unconscious (many even brain-dead) and will never be conscious again. Especially in the case of brain death (or brain-stem death), it's hard for me to grasp what's sinful about ceasing to essentially pump blood and air through a corpse.

As medicine advances further and further, it will likely become possible in more and more convoluted ways to keep a body alive long after critical parts have failed. We already have hepatic and renal dialysis, injectable insulin, heart/lung machines... how far does this business of withholding a possible treatment being sinful have to go?

What is being advocated here... administering large amounts of pain killers, even to the point of rendering the patient unconscious, and propping them up with measures like ventilators and such... what is the point of being alive? People in the days the Bible was written didn't know this kind of technology would exist. Even if a divine inspiration really did cause the authors to write what they did, they'd have been unable to grasp some of these issues. (If you haven't guessed, I'm not particularly sold on this idea. But I don't completely write it off, either.)

A somewhat cynical part of me can't help but notice how many hospitals are run by faith-based organizations... and that prolonging life indefinitely and aggressively applying every available treatment generates a goodly amount of income.

My thoughts are that the words of the Bible, for believers, must be interpreted in light of new advancements and changes... and that the ultimate arbiter of what the correct interpretation is should be prayer, reflection, and careful reading... not any Earthly body, such as a specific Church. These things are corruptible as well as imperfect by virtue of their Earthly nature.

What's more is that it's one thing to apply these practices to oneself, and quite another to force the issue with those who don't. There seems to be a recurring Biblical theme with respect to God Himself being the ultimate judge... those who have done something sinful will have to stand before Him and answer for that, and He will know what's in their heart (and was at the time they sinned).

Those people have made a tough choice... to ask them to change it by bludgeoning them with the threat of Hell fire and eternal damnation only creates additional stress at an already stressful time.

Personally, I'd be hard-pressed to see how most people would actually be judged sinful in light of their heart condition... even serial killers, who are driven by a compulsion that may very well be neurological in nature... and unbelievers who have earnestly studied the Bible... or even those who have shut it out because of a traumatic experience.

No offense to those who think and believe differently intended, of course. Just my two cents.

Imobus:
Christians what do you think of Euthanasia? Is it always wrong?

It is a personal choice to take away one's pain and suffering. It would be pretty ruthless if God would consider taking you own life because of too much pain a sin.

What does the bible have to say about this?

you could go world over to seek a justification of that but the fact still remains what you cannot create you have no right over. The only role man has to take with regard to life is protect it. Those in pain today death is not the way out but life is all the seek and that is found in Jesus who is able to bring back the death to life. Hence go Philosophicsl,biologicL our throuh whatever scieces it is still a sin to perticipate actively or parcively in Euthanasia. Afterall faith answers what seem a problem to science.

The morality of euthanasia: a Philosophical analysis
http://www.bravoprojecthelp.com/philosophy/the-morality-of-euthanasia-a-philosophical-analysis/