Euthanasia

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What is the issue?

"The issue in the question of euthanasia is this: Should governments make laws against intentionally taking the lives of elderly or dying persons? This issue often comes to focus in the case of terminally ill patients who are experiencing chronic pain and who no longer want to live and who may even wish that they could be put to death. It also is a question in the case of people who have lost much or most of their mental capacities because of a coma or severe dementia, or patients who through severe injury or illness appear to have no reasonable human hope of recovery. What should the law do in such cases?" (Wayne Grudem, 178-179)

2 Samuel 1:1-16

After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag. And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul's camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage. David said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.” And David said to him, “How did it go? Tell me.” And he answered, “The people fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead, and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.” Then David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” And the young man who told him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ And he said to me, ‘Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’ So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.” Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. And David said to the young man who told him, “Where do you come from?” And he answered, “I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.” David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?” Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him.” And he struck him down so that he died. And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the Lord's anointed.’” (ESV)

Grudem's observations:

This situation had several similarities to modern examples where people might say euthanasia is justified: (1) The patient (Saul) appeared to be terminally ill, with no reasonable human hope of recovery. (He had fallen on his own sword in an attempt to commit suicide: see 1 Sam. 31:4–5.) (2) The patient was in extreme pain, and if he did not die, he faced the prospect of even more suffering. (3) The patient clearly requested, even begged, that someone else would actively put him to death. (4) This request was also a command from the head of government at that time, because Saul was still the king. But David, who at that time is clearly portrayed as a man after God’s “own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14; cf. Acts 13:22), declares that this man is worthy of capital punishment. In other words, the person who carried out euthanasia is guilty of murder." (Grudem, 180)

References

  • Grudem, Wayne A. (2010-09-28). Politics - According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture. Zondervan.

Books

Law

External links

Critical

Favorable

  • Taking Life: Humans, by Peter Singer - Excerpted from Practical Ethics, 2nd edition, Cambridge, 1993, pp. 175-217 - "The fact that a being is a human being, in the sense of a member of the species Homo sapiens, is not relevant to the wrongness of killing it; it is, rather, characteristics like rationality, autonomy, and self-consciousness that make a difference. Infants lack these characteristics. Killing them, therefore, cannot be equated with killing normal human beings, or any other self-conscious beings... No infant - disabled or not - has as strong a claim to life as beings capable of seeing themselves as distinct entities, existing over time."