There are many reasons why Christians believe that voluntary euthanasia is not right. The first is that if you are a true Christian, then you will want to live through the suffering that Jesus lived through for you. It would be very selfish for you not to repay him as a Christian.
God has planned our life from birth to death and it would be a sin if you were to disturb that plan as it is our true life so you will be thrown into hell and punished for all your sins.
When some agrees to voluntary euthanasia, the doctor is expected to carry the incidence out. When someone becomes a doctor, their job is to save lives. This is proved when they take a Hippocratic Oath, their job isn’t to take lives.
If patients want to die with dignity, then they can celebrate the sacrament of the sick, so they feel an inner peace and they are no longer afraid of dieing. They can also be taken care of in a hospice so the last days of their life are as easy as possible.
If voluntary euthanasia became legal and was used very frequently, there would be no guilt felt by anyone.
Bible quotations that support the idea of voluntary euthanasia are-
‘Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit’.
‘All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to me.’
Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell.’
Some real life stories of voluntary euthanasia are:
Karen Ann Quinlan collapsed on April 15th, 1975. She was twenty-one years old. Within hours, she entered a coma from which she could never recover. Her parents, staunch Roman Catholics, knew their daughter would not want to be kept alive by extraordinary means. A year later, as Karen lay in a "persistent vegetative state," the courts finally allowed her treatment to be stopped; but artificial feeding was continued and she was maintained as a living corpse until June 1985, when she eventually died of pneumonia. Her case spurred thousands of letters of sympathy and fuelled the "right to die" movement. How many people need to die degrading deaths before society learns a little humanity?
Ramon Sanpedro is currently seeking, through the courts, the assistance of a doctor to help him die with dignity. He was paralysed in Spain as a result of a swimming accident during his youth. He describes himself as "a head attached to a corpse." He writes:
"Why die? Because every journey has its departure time and only the traveller has the privilege and the right to choose the last day to get out. Why to die? Because at times the journey of no return is the best path that reason can show us out of love and respect for life, so that life may havea dignified death."
Ramon Sanpedro makes no suggestion as to what the wishes of others in a similar physical condition might be. In fact, some people who are so paralysed take enjoyment in life and want to go on living. Their choice should be respected and they should be given every support. But Ramon Sanpedro has made his choice and his choice should also be respected. We should seek to ensure that the rights of the individual are always respected without allowing others to feel endangered or pressurised.
Sue Rodriguez, a mother in her early thirties, died slowly of Lou Gehrig's disease. She lived for several years with the knowledge that her muscles would, one by one, waste away until the day came when, fully conscious, she would choke to death. She begged the Courts to reassure her that a doctor would be allowed to assist her in choosing the moment of death. They refused. She lived on in terror, helped eventually by a doctor who, in February 1994, covertly broke the law to help her die in peace. A law on assisted suicide with rigorous safeguards could have saved her the nightmare during those months before her death, given her the confidence to carry on - with the reassurance that when it got too bad she could rely on a compassionate doctor to follow her wishes at the end.
Overall, I believe that voluntary euthanasia should only be allowed if the patient has gone through the courts after being anointed, because then they would really think about euthanasia after being anointed.
