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Is euthanasia ever morally justifiable?
The term euthanasia is derived from two Greek words: eu which means well or good, and thanatos which means death. Many believe that certain kinds of voluntary euthanasia (those instances where a patient does request death or grants permission to be put to death) can be morally justified.
The arguments these ethicists present are based on several assumptions. The first may be categorized as "person-hood." They would argue that someone in an irreversible coma is no longer a person but only a biological organism. The distinction is often made between a person’s biological life, or physical existence, and one’s biographical life, or the aspects of one’s life that make it meaningful. One’s biographical life is the sum total of one’s goals, desires, dreams, plans, accomplishments and relationships. Medical science has made it possible to retain one’s biological life after having lost one’s biographical life. Thus, they contend the individual can exist only as a body, having lost the essence of what it is that makes him/her a person. Hence they conclude it is not murder to terminate what remains of one’s mere biological existence.
A second argument they put forth is based on "quality of life and mercy." In cases of un-relenting and un-relievable suffering, where there is no reasonable hope of improvement, life ceases to be worth living. In such cases, an individual or his/her family ought to be free to put an end to such incessant misery. No one, they say, should be compelled to live a life that they no longer regard as life. We extend mercy to animals when we put them out of their misery; so why should we be less merciful to humans?
Their third argument is focused on "utilitarian concerns." Most people cannot afford to underwrite the expense of keeping a terminally ill or comatose person alive. To do so places an unfair burden on other members of the family or even on society. Why should tax dollars and precious hospital space and technology be expended to perpetuate the life of someone who will never function in society again when there are other, potentially more productive people, who cannot receive proper care?
Against these arguments those of us who are opposed to euthanasia would raise the sanctity of life concern. Human life, because it is created in the image of God, is sacred. No measure is too extreme, no cost too high to preserve what God has made. Biblically we find prohibitions in both the Old and New Testaments against killing the innocent. The Bible says that people grow and mature and deepen in their understanding of and trust in God when they endure suffering. We also point to a medical history that is filled with examples of people thought to have incurable/terminal diseases who were later healed when medical knowledge increased.
Yes, it is not hard to see how society may argue that family pressure and mounting medical bills that eat away at the patient’s estate could coerce one into consenting to end one’s life, not because the patient was tired of living but because others were tired of the patient living. But added to this are the counter concerns that this slippery slope will lead to a situation in which eventually euthanasia will not be restricted to the terminally ill. Rather, it will be extended to people with varying quality of life circumstances. We opponents of euthanasia fear that candidates for euthanasia will include the non-terminally ill, such as people with Alzheimer’s disease or other degenerative brain diseases, the severely mentally retarded and handicapped newborns.
In summary, the proponents of euthanasia see humans as lords of their own life while our Christian perspective sees life as a gift from God to be held in trusteeship throughout our life on earth. Determining the moment of death is God's prerogative not ours (Job 14:5). We do not choose our own death but acquiesce to the will of the heavenly Father knowing that death is both the last enemy and the doorway to eternal life. Because we bear the image of God our life is sacred in every state of existence: in sickness or in health; in the womb or in infancy or in old age, or even in the process of dying itself. We Christians are to be shining lights to a world of darkness who choose life for ourselves and for others; offering to the dying not deadly poisons, but neighborly love and the hope of eternal life.