Euthanasia is the action of inducing a quiet and easy death 

Euthanasia is ending a person's life deliberately, but for compassionate reasons

There are several ways in which this can be done:

• Suicide - where a person knows they have a very painful terminal illness and commit suicide to give themselves a quiet and easy death

• Assisted suicide - somebody unable to obtain the means for suicide may ask somebody to give them the means and so assist them to enable them to have a quiet and easy death

• Voluntary euthanasia - asking somebody to kill them painlessly (eg: asking the doctor to administer a lethal dose of painkillers)

• Non-voluntary euthanasia - where a person is not kept alive because they are regarded as having a life worse than death.  This could include babies born with severe abnormalities and people on life-support machines who are 'brain dead'

• Not striving to keep alive - the idea that someone suffering from a terminal illness should have all the means at their disposal of keeping them alive, but if they have a heart attack or are very old then you do not need to go through all the resuscitation procedures

• Double effect - giving a patient drugs to relieve their pain, knowing that they will kill them over a long period of time

Under British law at the moment all these forms of euthanasia, except suicide, are crimes.  The law in Britain does not allow anyone to end another person's life either by giving drugs or by switching off a machine, even if the person requests it.

Many people feel that the laws need to be changed.  This is because of medical advances in being able to keep patients alive even though their 'life' may be appalling or theoretically non-existent.  Also there are many who feel that a basic human right is to have control over your own life - if you have the right to commit suicide then you have the right to ask a doctor to assist your suicide.  The Voluntary Euthanasia Society provide 'Living Wills' where a person can write a will whilst they are healthy saying that they do not want treatment if they develop and incurable disease.  This type of euthanasia is permissible in Holland.

Christianity & Euthanasia

All Christians agree that euthanasia is wrong.  Life is given by God and can only be taken by God. However, there are disagreements among Christians about what to do if someone is incurably ill and is only being kept alive by intrusive treatment.

Key Arguments:

If God is Love then to end suffering would bring glory to God (For) ... People have been given Free Will by God so surely they have the right to choose to end their own lives (For) ... There may be a purpose to suffering and therefore people might learn from it (Against) ... Life is sacred (Against)

Key Questions for Christians:

Does Free Will give someone the right to die?    What is the most compassionate response to someone who wants to die?    How can Christians best care for the suffering and terminally ill?    How can you judge someone's quality of life?

Islam & Euthanasia

The Prophet said, "In the time before you, a man was wounded.  His wounds troubled him so much that he took a knife and cut his wrist to bleed himself to death.  Thereupon Allah said, 'My slave hurried in the matter of his life therefore he is deprived of the Garden'". 

Muslims do not allow euthanasia in any form.  As they view this life as a test then to use euthanasia would be cheating.  As Muslims believe they must pass the test to get to heaven they cannot accept euthanasia.

Human life per se is a value to be respected unconditionally, irrespective of other circumstances. The concept of a life not worthy of living does not exist in Islam. Justification of taking life to escape suffering is not acceptable in Islam.

www.therevival.co.uk/articles/euthanasia.htm  Islamic views on euthanasia and suicide - very informative

www.islamatschool.org.uk/GC/GCSETopicsPages/Euthanasia.htm  Superb resource with quotes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/background_briefings/euthanasia/331247.stm  A BBC site detailing relevant links

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/ethics/sanctity_life/euthach.shtml  Colourful & easy to understand!

www.faithnet.org.uk/KS4/christianeuthanasia.htm  Detailed & Informative

www.faithnet.org.uk/KS4/christianeuthanasia2.htm  Christian declarations on Euthanasia

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