Is euthanasia wrong? If a person is really suffering from an incurable disease and is having lots of pain, why should he not be able to ask his doctor to end his life? After all, it’s his life, isn’t it?
Suggested Daily Reading: Genesis 1:26-27 and Genesis 2:7
We can observe the sinful devaluing and killing of human life not only in the first weeks or months of human life with abortion, but also as a person becomes older, weaker or is suffering physically or emotionally, and may wish to die.
Human life, however, is not ours. We did not create human life. We did not earn it. We do not own it. It is God-created, God-given and God-owned. Read the daily reading verses above once again. Do you understand how the foundation and unique worth of human life is God-given? God created us to reflect Him and for an eternal existence. Only God, Who has given the gift of human life, has the right to take it back again. The time of our birth on earth and our departure from this earth, are both God’s rights, not ours.
Euthanasia and suicide are rebellious actions against God; against God’s sovereign rule over life and death. They attempt to usurp God’s kingly right and to claim death as my human right. They claim that I have the right to determine when and how I want to die. Do you understand why the supposition in the question asked at the heading of this page is wrong?
Not only is euthanasia rebellion against God as the sovereign Lord of life, but it also devalues human beings as God’s image-bearers and the importance and uniqueness of their eternal existence and destiny. Once man usurps the right to determine whose life is worth living and whose is not, the result will be disastrous. Human leaders could promote and enforce that unborn children may be killed if their mothers do not want them; seriously ill parents may be murdered if their children do not want to provide for them; elderly people may be disposed of if we need to restrict medical expenditures because it’s too expensive to care for them; and depressed individuals may be put to death if they ask for this. Where will it stop if man can decide instead of God? How about handicapped people who others feel do not have a sufficient quality of life? Can we approve that they be murdered? How about those who hold views that oppose those of the majority? How about those who are a drag on our economy instead of contributors to it? Do you recognize the dangers, once we push God out of the picture?
What makes human beings different from cats or monkeys? If people believe that there is no God and human beings are only evolutionary animals, then what is wrong with deciding to put some to sleep when they become old or sick? Is the death of the body of a human person on earth, the death of the person’s existence? Why is the death of a person different from that of an animal?