God gives life to everything (1 Tim. 6.13). Nothing has life, except what God has desired to live. God has allowed us liberty to choose to act in accordance with His word or to act out against it; to act morally or immorally. Physician assisted suicide and active euthanasia are unethical practices since they go against the intent of God for life. There is no reason to take our own lives; God will take them in His time. There are two participants in the process of physician assisted suicide which are faced with their own ethical dilemmas: the physician and the patient, the person considering euthanasia.

Somehow mankind tends to become lenient to the subject of euthanasia. We tend to believe that our lives are our own and we can do what we want with them. This definition does not stand up to biblical standards. Numbers 35.16 says, “If a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he is a murderer” and Exodus 20:13 says, “You shall not murder.” We are commanded not to murder and to strike someone, even yourself, is murder.

The physician is not committing murder or breaking any other command, at least not directly. That still does not make the practice ethical. The physician is an enabler. According to First Corinthians, chapter eight, if we do anything which leads someone else to sin, then we ourselves are sinning. For this very simple reason, the blood of the murderer (the patient) is on the hands of the physician since he assisted in the murder. Therefore, the physician is just as guilty as the patient, so it is immoral for him to assist in suicide.

There is another fairly obvious dilemma. Even if you do not believe in the Bible, there are characteristics of the scenario which are ‘red flags’. Natural law tells man that murder and even suicide in most cultures is immoral. To argue that a medical or emotional situation warrants the behavior is simply a mask for mans desire to change what God has written on their hearts as sin. Even the physicians role is carefully scripted so as to remain arguably ethical. Most morals are fairly black and white. The more you try to justify a behavior, the more argument you find for its immorality. I believe that is the case with euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, so it should never be practiced under any circumstances.

Image Credits: adamci, sxc.hu

Physician Assisted Suicide and Active Euthanasia