What is meant by euthanasia?

In a Biblical story it says "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any may destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are." This shows their belief that human life is sacred as God created them. Therefore people believe that human life should be protected and preserved. They also believe that people are made by God's image so they believe that life carried a special value and dignity. By ending your life He created you would be ending the value to your life, thus offending Him. They believe you should spend as much time as you can on earth and appreciating and thanking the life you are given. Judaism also believes this Mr. Rachamin who is the leader of Jewsweek said "The message of Judaism is that one must struggle until the last breath of life. Until the last moment, one has to live and rejoice and give thanks to the Creator."

Muslims believe that by shortening a human's life they have interfered with God's plan for that individual. In the Qur'an it says "No person can ever die except by Allah's leave and at an appointed term." Thus when people say that by knowing that they could leave this world any moment it gives them comfort, it clearly contradicts the religious beliefs.

Hinduism and Buddhism both believe in Karma. They believe that we are reincarnated continuously until we escape the cycle. When we are re-born what we are re-born as depends on our Karma which is the good and bad deeds done in the previous life. By shortening life, it gets in the way of the laws of karma thus interfering with the journey to become few of this cycle. They also believe in ahimsa which is the law not to harm anything with a life. This obviously rules out killing of a human life for any reason. This plays a part in your karma as well. If you kill something you are meant to have bad karma, therefore being reincarnated into a lower form of life.

Another point that religious people have is that since God created life he should be the only one with the right to take it away. They think that their lives have to end at any time and in any way that God wants as we owe our lives to him.

Economic conflict is also an issue in this matter. Many health care providers have to save money as too much is being spent on keeping terminally ill patients in hospitals or hospices. In the future the solution for all their problems could be to just "kill off the patients." This lowers the cost a lot and gives health care providers more money in the long run. This is what is happening in the Netherlands. Half the killings are now non voluntary and people who are not terminally ill are being killed due to mental illnesses and permanent disabilities. This is a major problem if you legalize voluntary assisted suicide for terminally ill patients it will spread to include much more than that like in the Netherlands. Therefore when one might argue that patients would respect their doctors if they know that they would go to great lengths to keep them from terminal suffering, this may not be the case.

One may argue that they want to die a dignified death. The most common reason as to why one may choose the path of euthanasia is that some families simply cannot afford paying for terminally ill patients so their solution would be to get rid of them. The patients could also feel as if she or he was being a burden to his or her family and be pressured into "choosing" to die. How can one possibly justify that as dignified death?

Research shows that the majority of people with illnesses or disabilities are perfectly capable of committing suicide by the same means employed by other people. People may argue that the patients could be physically unable to commit suicide but on the other hand they can refuse food or treatment which would be equally as effective and is not against the law. My personal opinion is that if they are capable of making the decision, then they can find a way of killing themselves.

People who argue that the government has not right to make people suffer by implementing laws that say euthanasia is illegal are clearly mislead. If you want to die you can, suicide is not against the law. At the same time why should the government have the right to give power to a group of people to kill others? The laws against euthanasia are logical and are in place to protect people from corrupt doctors and others. They are not intended to make anyone suffer as people claim.