Download 1 Corinthians 3:16,17

Suicide and Euthanasia
自殺與安樂死
1 Corinthians 3:16,17 “Do you not know that you are
a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in
you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will
destroy him, for the temple of God is holy and that is
what you are.”
1 Corinthians 6:19,20 “Or do you not know that your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God and that you are not your
own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body.”
End of Life
Origin of death: Rm 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one
man,and death through sin, and in this way death came
to all men, because all sinned.
- Spiritual death
- Physical death
– aging process 自然老化
- acute illness or accidents急症或意外(Jms 4:14
Why , you do not even know what will happen
tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that
appears for a little while and then vanishes)
-terminal illness 絕症
• Terminal Illness 絕症
• Many definitions
1. Oregon’s assisted suicide law defines
"terminal" as a condition which will "within
reasonable medical judgment, produce death
within six months." A prognosis of six month
to live is also the basis upon which patients
qualify for hospice coverage under Medicare
2. The Dutch who describe "terminal"
as a "concrete expectancy of death
• in the Netherlands, unbearable
suffering of either a physical or
mental nature has been the factor
• Issues of terminal illness
a) Medical care-ordinary means-according
to circumstances of persons, times, and
culture; extraordinary means-take more
than the strictly necessary steps to
preserve life
b) Quality of life – mental impairment
(vegetation state, senile), physical
impairment (hemiplegia, ventilator
dependence) , chronic pain
c) Value of life
• Most people in North America die what
may be called a bad death -patients
died in pain or loss of dignity.
• Euthanasia安樂死
• Greek language: eu means "good" and
thanatos means "death".
• the intentional termination of life by
another at the explicit request of the
person who dies.病患者特意請求別人幫
助終結自己的生命
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many means:
Passive Euthanasia被動
Active Euthanasia主動
voluntary passive euthanasia
Involuntary Euthanasia(mercy
killing)
• Passive Euthanasia:
• Hastening the death of a person by altering
some form of support and letting nature take
its course. 停止一些醫療行動,使病者能加快自
然死亡For example:
1.Removing life support equipment (e.g.
turning off a respirator) or
2.Stopping medical procedures, medications
etc., or
3.Stopping food and water and allowing the
person to dehydrate or starve to death.
4. Not delivering CPR (cardio-pulmonary
resuscitation) and allowing a person, whose
heart has stopped, to die (DNR or DNI).
5. give a patient large doses of morphine to
control pain, in spite of the likelihood that
the pain-killer will suppress respiration and
cause death earlier
performed on terminally ill, suffering persons
so that natural death will occur sooner.
It is also done on persons in a Persistent
Vegetative State
• Active Euthanasia (Assisted suicide): This
involves causing the death of a person
through a direct action, in response to a
request from that person,e.g. inject
controlled substances (heroin) into the
patient, thus causing his death.
• voluntary passive euthanasia
• A)hook patients up to a machine that
delivered measured doses of medications,
but only after the patient pushed a button to
initiate the sequence.
• B)provided carbon monoxide and a face
mask so that his patient could initiate the
flow of gas
• Involuntary Euthanasia (mercy
killing): This term is used by some to
describe the killing of a person who
has not explicitly requested aid in
dying. This is most often done to
patients who are in a Persistent
Vegetative State and will probably
never recover consciousness.
• Why is it an issue?
• Legal issues:
• Throughout North America, committing
suicide or attempting to commit suicide is no
longer a criminal offense. However, helping
another person commit suicide is a criminal
act.
• One exception is the state of Oregon which
allows people who are terminally ill and in
intractable pain to get a lethal prescription
from their physician. This is called "Physician
Assisted Suicide" or PAS.
• Reasons for legalizing Euthanasia
1.Unbearable pain
2.Right to commit suicide
• People should not be forced to stay alive
• Christian beliefs :
• Deliberate ending of a people’s life is
always wrong, that include:
Suicide and euthanasia
• Sanctity of life
- Life is the gift of God and is thus
only to be taken by God
• Is there an example of assisted
suicide in the Bible?
2 Samuel 1:1-16
• There is an account of reported voluntary
euthanasia (in which one person asks another to
kill them - involving King Saul and an Amalekite.
The unnamed Amalekite tells King David that he
killed Saul at Saul’s request, as Saul was wounded
in battle. David’s response is to kill the Amalekite
for touching God’s anointed. If euthanasia were a
beneficial practice, David would have rewarded
the Amalekite, not sentenced him to death.
• How should Christians respond to
the fear (or reality) of pain and
suffering?
Deuteronomy 31:6,8 “Be strong and courageous,
do not be afraid or tremble..., for the Lord your
God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail
you or forsake you.... And the Lord is the one who
goes ahead of you.... Do not fear, or be dismayed.”
•
Romans 8:32, 35,37 “He who did not spare His
own son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will
He not also with Him freely give us all things?...
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... But in
all these things we overwhelmingly conquer
through Him who loved us.”
•
Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for
Thou art with me ...”
• How should Christians respond to
personal challenges, disabilities
and infirmities?
2 Corinthians 12:9 “And He said to me, ‘My grace
is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in
weakness.’”
Philippians 4:11,13,19 “... for I have learned to be
content in whatever circumstances I am...I can do
all things through Him who strengthens me.... And
my God shall supply all your needs according to
His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
• Does suffering have spiritual value?
Can God be glorified in how we
respond to suffering?
• Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose
heart, but though our outer man is decaying,
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
For momentary, light affliction is producing for
us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all
comparison, while we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen; for the things which are seen are
temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal.”
• But, it’s my body. Don’t I have a
right to choose when I die?
• 1 Corinthians 3:16,17 “Do you not know that you
are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of
God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God
is holy and that is what you are.”
1 Corinthians 6:19,20 “Or do you not know that
your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in
you, whom you have from God and that you are
not your own? For you have been bought with a
price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
• Is it acceptable for a Christian, who
is terminally ill, to refuse available
technology in order to let nature
take its course and bring about a
natural death?
Yes.
Ecclesiastes 3:1,2 “There is an appointed time for
everything. And there is a time for every event
under heaven — a time to give birth, and a time to
die.”
Psalm 116:15 “Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of His godly ones.”
Psalm 139:16 “And in Thy book they were all
written, the days that were ordained for me.”
• Catholic Theologians' application of the
above to feeding done by tube and/or the
use of a respirator: There are two schools of
thought:
• a)Some will ask the question: Is it
permissible to starve someone to
death? -- If the question is put that way,
the answer will be: No. They will add:
food is always an ordinary means, even
if the way of giving it is extraordinary.
• b)If there is no hope at all of recovery and the
patient is unconscious and unable to take
food by himself/herself, is the family obliged
to provide this means for a long period, and is
the sick one obliged to submit to it?
• Put this way, many solid theologians will say:
It is not required. The burden is too great, all
out of proportion to the hope of good to be
obtained. As the Sacred Congregation
pointed out in the above quotation, we
consider not only ordinary vs extraordinary,
but also the proportionate results, compared
to the difficulty, expense, and care of
providing it.
• Statement of U. S. Bishops, checked by
Cardinal Ratzinger (from: National
Catholic Reporter, April 10, 1992, a
Resource Paper, released April 2
):"nutrition and hydration 'must not be
withdrawn in order to cause death', yet
they 'may be withdrawn if they offer no
reasonable hope of sustaining life, or
pose excessive risks or burdens. '"
• Isn’t opposition to euthanasia and
assisted suicide just an attempt to
impose religious beliefs on others?
• The debate over euthanasia and
assisted suicide is about public policy
and the law.
• The fact that the religious convictions of
some people parallel what has been
long-standing public policy does not
disqualify them from taking a stand on
an issue.
• In Washington state, where an attempt
to legalize euthanasia and assisted
suicide by voter initiative in 1991 failed,
polls taken within days of the vote
indicated that fewer than ten percent of
those who opposed the measure had
done so for religious reasons.(62)
• Voter initiatives have also failed in
California,(63), Michigan(64) and
Maine.(65) All failed following
significant organized opposition from a
coalition of groups including medical
societies, nursing groups, hospice
associations, civil rights groups and
major state newspapers.
• Do the acts of assisted suicide and
euthanasia deny God the
opportunity to demonstrate His
healing power?
• Yes.
Matthew 8:16 “And when evening had come, they
brought to Him (Jesus) many who were demonpossessed; and he cast out the spirits with a word,
and healed all who were ill.”
James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one
another, and pray for one another, so that you may
be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man
can accomplish much.”
Evangelical View
Advance directive decisions which are
made to limit or discontinue terminal care
must be fenced in by a Biblical ethic
founded on the sanctity of life and then
should proceed to consider the following:
-terminal care decisions must be free of
any intention to cause death;
-they must never be driven solely to end
suffering;
-they must never be used to eliminate
suffering by eliminating the sufferer;
-they must address the moral issue of
who is entrusted with treatment decisions
for another;
they cannot rely on quality of life
determinations alone and must remain as
clear as possible in the differentiation
between terminal and imminent. Such a
distinction is essential so as not to lead to an
early abandonment of medical interventions
and should leave the door open later to the
ministry of terminal care appropriate when
attempts at cure are exhausted. Vaguely
stated advance directives (i.e., no heroic
care) must never be permitted to lead to
either benign neglect or the absence of
compassion.
Advance directives may represent the
ultimate reduction of agonizing patient and
family choice necessarily leading to either life
or death. For the Christian, these terminal
choices must valuate life as singularly unique
since human life is created in the image of
God (Gen. 9:5-6; Ps. 8:3-5; 100:3; 139:3ff;
Acts 17:25). Other "important mandates (e.g.,
personal freedom, an end to suffering) must
yield when they stand in the way of the
sustenance of life."17