The+Euthanasia+debate+-+Religious+Perspectives

= Euthanasia and Religious Perspectives =

 Definitions of Euthanasia (from Euthanasia.com)
Euthanasia  is defined as "The intentional killing by an act or an omission (ex: from pills or from lack of food) of a dependent human person because of alleged benefit."

The word "euthanasia" comes from a Greek word meaning "good death".

Categories of Euthanasia: **Voluntary euthanasia:** When the person who is killed has requested to be killed. **Non-voluntary:** When the person who is killed made no request and gave no consent. **Involuntary euthanasia:** When the person who is killed made an expressed wish to the that they did not wand to die. **Assisted suicide:** Someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person kill themselves it is called "physician assisted suicide." **Euthanasia By Action:** Intentionally causing a person's death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection. **Euthanasia By Omission or Passive Euthanasia:** Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water.

Arguments for euthanasia are that it provides a way to relieve extreme pain, relief when the quality of one's life is low, it frees up medical funds and energy to help other people, and it is another instance where the freedom of choice comes into affect. Arguments against euthanasia are that euthanasia devalues human life, can become a means of health care cost containment, physicians and other medical care people should not be involved with directly causing death, and when euthanasia was first legalized it was only for the terminally ill, but laws were then changed to include other people or to be done non-voluntarily and some feel that this should not be the right of the government to decide.
 * PROS**
 * CONS**

Often, complications arise in the debate of euthanasia from the use of the term suicide or murder. = = = = =Legality = The countries Albania, Belgium, Germany, <span style="font-family: sans-serif,helvetica,sans-serif;">Luxembourg, Netherlands, <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">explicitly state that euthanasia is legal.

Euthanasia was legalized in Albania in 1999, any form of voluntary euthanasia was legal under the rights of the terminally ill act of 1995. Passive euthanasia is considered legal if three or more family members consent to the decision.

The Belgian parliament legalized euthanasia in late September 2002.

In June 2010, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany legalised passive euthanasia with patient consent.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">In the Netherlands,<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"> courts allow both self-administration and euthanasia ( when a doctor delivers the lethal dose, the more common patient choice). A patient does not have to be terminally ill to be treated in the Netherlands, but does have to be facing "unbearable suffering," and children as young as 12 can be considered for treatment, with both parents' consent.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Legal Euthanasia: No Spur to Suicide" **TIME** Article <span style="color: #003399; cursor: pointer; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; outline-style: none; text-decoration: none;">[]

Physician aid-in-dying (PAD) is legal in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Montana. The difference between euthanasia and PAD is who administers the lethal dose of medication. •Euthanasia entails the physician or another third party administers the medication •PAD requires the patient to self-administer the medication and to determine when to do this
 * United States**

<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">In Oregon doctors can prescribe lethal doses of medication only to terminally ill patients 18 and older, and those patients then have to administer the medicine themselves.

In 1999, the state of Texas passed the Texas Futile Care Law. Under the law, in some situations, Texas hospitals and physicians have the right to withdraw life support measures, such as mechanical respiration, from terminally ill patients when treatment is considered to be both futile and inappropriate.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px;">**Christianity** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Christians are mostly against euthanasia. The arguments are based on the beliefs that life is given by God, and that human beings are made in God's image. Some churches also emphasise the importance of not interfering with the natural process of death.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Life is a gift from God
===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">Because life is a gift from God, birth and death are part of the life processes which God has created, so we should respect them. Therefore no human being has the authority to take the life of any innocent person, even if that person wants to die ===

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Human beings are valuable because they are made in God's image
===<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">Human life possesses an intrinsic dignity and value because it is created by God in his own image for the distinctive destiny of sharing in God's own life. This should be preserved so that people can continue this. === <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">Other issues with euthanasia include:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">euthanasia for an individual is to judge that the life of the person is not worthwhile
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">arguments based on the quality of life are irrelevant
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">no one should ask for euthanasia because no one has the right to value themselves as worthless

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The process of dying is spiritually important, and should not be disrupted

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Many churches believe that the period just before death is a profoundly spiritual time, and the time should not be interrupted

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">All human lives are equally valuable
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Valuing human beings as equal just because they are human beings has clear implications for thinking about euthanasia:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">patients in a persistent vegetative state, although seriously damaged, remain living human beings, and so their intrinsic value remains the same as anyone else's
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">so it would be wrong to treat their lives as worthless and to conclude that they 'would be better off dead'
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">patients who are old or sick, and who are near the end of earthly life have the same value as any other human being
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">people who have mental or physical handicaps have the same value as any other human being

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Exceptions and omissions
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Some features of Christianity suggest that there are some obligations that go against the general view that euthanasia is a bad thing. Because Christianity requires respect for every being, someone's decision to end their life should also be respected. Rational decisions to refuse burdensome and futile treatment should be respected.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">End of life care
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Christian faith leads those who follow it to some clear-cut views about the way terminally ill patients should be treated including proper care by the community that religious people, both lay and professional, should help the terminally ill to prepare for death.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Roman Catholic view
==<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">Euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person, in line with the general Christian perspective. ==

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 1995 wrote:
//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The Roman Catholic church regards euthanasia as morally wrong. It has always taught the absolute and unchanging value of the commandment "You shall not kill". //

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The church has said that nothing and no one can in any way permit the killing of an innocent human being, whether a fetus or an embryo, an infant or an adult, an old person, or one suffering from an incurable disease, or dying person.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Pope John Paul II has spoken out against what he calls a 'culture of death' in modern society, and said that human beings should always prefer the way of life to the way of death. The church regards any law permitting euthanasia as an intrinsically unjust law.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The National Conference of Catholic Bishops stated in 1991: //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As Catholic leaders and moral teachers, we believe that life is the most basic gift of a loving God--a gift over which we have stewardship but not absolute dominion". //

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Refusing aggressive medical treatment
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The church regards it as morally acceptable to refuse extraordinary and aggressive medical means to preserve life. Refusing such treatment is not euthanasia but a proper acceptance of the human condition in the face of death.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Assisting suicide
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Since it is morally wrong to commit suicide it is morally wrong to help someone commit suicide.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"True compassion leads to sharing another's pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear." <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 1995



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Euthanasia is not permitted in Judaism and active euthanasia is regarded as murder by Jewish law. Humans do not have the right to kill themselves.
 * Judaism **

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The major principle of Judaism that concerns medical ethics is the belief in the sanctity of life, the infinite value in every innocent life. This means that euthanasia would come under the category of destroying a life. It is never allowed to obtain relief from suffering at the cost of life itself by hastening death and it is not allowed for another to save someone from suffering and pain through euthanasia.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A grey area does exist in suspending "heroic methods" (aggressive medical procedures that would keep a person alive) to sustain a lingering life, as long as it doesn't involve direct actions by someone like "pulling the plug". Therefore, it would be acceptable to not apply or reapply resuscitation machines or other artificial means to prolong a dying person's life. The decision making however does not rest with the patient or the family, but on the medical practitioner and in consultation with rabbinical opinion.
 * Grey Area**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">However, Israel's supreme court however upheld the right of a terminal cancer patient's right to discontinue life support under certain circumstances like extreme suffering.

An example found in Judges //9:53-54// of Jewish euthanasia states: //And a certain woman threw an upper millstone upon Abim'elech's head, and crushed his skull.// //Then he called hastily to the young man his armor-bearer, and said to him, "Draw your sword// //and kill me, lest men say of me, 'A woman killed him.'" And his young man thrust him through,// //and he died.//

Source: The Encyclopedia of Judaism. "Medical Ethics, Jewish" Ed. Geoffrey Wigoder. New York: New York UP, 1989.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Islamic views on Euthanasia are very explicitly clear and unquestionable, leaving no grey area. Euthanasia is prohibited in Islam because Muslims believe that all human life is sacred because it is given by Allah, and that Allah chooses how long each person will live. Therefore they believe that human beings should not interfere in this. A passage in the Qur'an states that no person can ever die except by Allah's leave and at an appointed term.
 * [[image:http://indiaclips.tripod.com/islam.jpg width="150" height="150" align="left"]]Islam **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Suicide is strictly forbidden and euthanasia, killing oneself to avoid pain, means not being able to enter paradise.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Euthanasia from omission is considered permissible because it is not viewed as suicide or murder. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The suspension of medical treatment (preventing medication for the patient that is from a medical perspective useless) is permissible and sometimes recommended. Thus, the physician can do this for the sake of the patient’s comfort and the relief of his family.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grey Area **

Another area that is deemed permissible is if a patient is medically presumed brain dead, they no longer have any feelings, switching off the life support may be permissible, with consultation, especially when it’s clear that the life support machine becomes of no use for the already-dead patient.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There are several Hindu points of view on euthanasia:
 * [[image:http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/religion/hinduism/gsaraswt.jpg width="222" height="294" align="left"]]Hinduism **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Most Hindus would say that a doctor should not accept a patient's request for euthanasia since this will cause the soul and body to be separated at an unnatural time. The result will damage the karma of both doctor and patient. By helping to end a life, even one filled with suffering, a person is disturbing the timing of the cycle of death and rebirth, resulting in harm to the karma.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Karma** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hindus believe in the reincarnation of the soul through many lives and the ultimate goal is to achieve moksha, liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. A soul cannot achieve moksha without good karma.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Other Hindus believe that euthanasia cannot be allowed because it breaches the teaching of ahimsa, which means not being violent or causing harm to other beings.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Killing**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Killing (euthanasia, murder, suicide) interferes with the killed soul's progress towards liberation. It also brings bad karma to the killer, because of the violation of the principle of non-violence.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">**Grey area** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The same argument suggests that keeping a person artificially alive on a life-support machine would also not allowed. However, the use of a life-support machine as part of a temporary attempt at healing would not be a bad thing. However, some Hindus say that by helping to end a painful life a person is performing a good deed and fulfilling their moral obligations.

** Some Hindus do practice this type of suicide that is acceptable in certain circumstances.<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> It is non-violent and uses natural means. It should only be done however when it's the right time for this life to end - when this body has become a burden; ** **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;"> //•//It gives ample time for the patient to prepare themselves and those around for death ** **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;"> •It is associated with feelings of serenity ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hindu law lays down conditions for prayopavesa: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> •inability to perform normal bodily purification <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> •death appears imminent or the condition is so bad that there are no more pleasures in life <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> •the decision is publicly declared <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> •the action must be done under community regulation
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Prayopavesa, or fasting to death **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">An example of prayopavesa:
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, a Hindu leader born in California, took his own life by prayopavesa in November 2001. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">After finding that he had untreatable intestinal cancer the Satguru meditated for several days and then announced that he would accept pain-killing treatment only and would undertake prayopavesa - taking water, but no food. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">He died on the 32nd day of his self-imposed fast.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[]

==<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"> ==

Buddhism
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Buddhists are not unanimous in their view of euthanasia, and the teachings of the Buddha don't explicitly deal with it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">States of mind
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The most common position is that voluntary euthanasia is wrong, because it demonstrates that one's mind is in a bad state and that one has allowed physical suffering to cause mental suffering. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Meditation and the proper use of pain killing drugs should enable a person to attain a state where they are not in mental pain, and so no longer contemplate euthanasia or suicide. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Buddhists might also argue that helping to end someone's life is likely to put the helper into a bad mental state, and this too should be avoided.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Avoiding harm
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Buddhism places great stress on non-harm, and avoiding the ending of life. Certain codes of Buddhist monastic law explicitly forbid it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Karma
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Buddhists regard death as a transition. The deceased person will be reborn to a new life, whose quality will be the result of their karma. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This produces two problems: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> •The next life is unknown and might be worse than the life of the current sick person's. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> •Shortening life interferes with the working out of karma, and alters the karmic balance resulting from the shortened life.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Euthanasia as suicide
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Buddha himself showed tolerance of suicide by monks in several cases.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Also: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> •Japanese Buddhist tradition includes many stories of suicide by monks, and suicide was used as a political weapon by Buddhist <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> monks during the Vietnam war, but it was restricted to monks. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> •The way life ends has a profound impact on the way the new life will begin. So a person's state of mind at the time of death should <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> be selfless and enlightened, free of anger, hate or fear. This suggests that suicide (and so euthanasia) is only approved for people <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> who have achieved enlightenment and that the rest should avoid it.

A 2004 film //The Sea Inside// deals with the issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Javier Bardem who played a character based on a real person<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> who became a quadriplegic after injuries from a diving accident. After 29 years, he asked for assisted suicide and when refused, he wrote a book, appealed to the Spanish Parliament, took out a court case, all of which failed. “I’m just a head stuck to a body,” he stated. Eventually a group of euthanasia sympathizers successfully helped him with his suicide.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Films and Documentaries **