Christian Teaching and Discussion About Euthanasia Essay

Christian Teaching and Discussion About Euthanasia The word euthanasia comes from two Greek words eu meaning good and thanatos meaning death. Literally it means a good death. Euthanasia is arranging for someone who has an incurable terminal illness to die as quickly and as painlessly as possible. It is the act of purposely aiding someone to die, instead of letting nature take its course. There are four main types of euthanasia these are: Voluntary, Involuntary, Active and Passive. Euthanasia is currently illegal in the UK, but is legal in the Netherlands and the state of Oregon however; it is still a widely discussed topic, which raises many moral questions. In this essay I will be†¦show more content†¦Also the Roman Catholic Church opposes euthanasia because of the strongly taught commandment: Thou shall not kill. To add to that: the Roman Catholic Church regards the sanctity of life as an extremely important teaching and places the highest value on human life and suffering and pain do not stop life being valuable and is not a reason for ending life, therefore the Church believes that people should leave the dying process to God, not to humans who by allowing euthanasia are, for Roman Catholics, devaluing human life and making it seem disposable. Instead people should die with dignity and let them be loved unconditionally by God until the end of earthly life. Therefore Roman Catholics oppose euthanasia, this is an absolute view. The Church of Englands report in 1975 on dying well and the Methodist Churchs statement in 1974 both oppose euthanasia. They emphasise the fact that human life is sacred. However Christian views today vary with most Christians not accepting euthanasia. A Christian teaching that can be used for euthanasia is the sanctity of life. Christians believe that all life is given as a gift from God: God made man in his own image, male and female he created them. Gen Therefore because God gave life, it is a gift and it is valuable because humans are made in Gods image: God made man in his own image. Gen. Because God created humansShow MoreRelatedEuthanasia Essay example1605 Words   |  7 PagesEuthanasia The word euthanasia comes from the Greek: eu- meaning well and thanatos meaning death, therefore euthanasia literally means to die well. It is now often understood as causing death to happen, usually because of the pain and suffering of the individual. There are three types of euthanasia: Voluntary euthanasia, when a person asks to die before or during illness. 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