Religious View on Euthanasia: Should It Be Legal Or Illegal

Euthanasia is an unfamiliar word to many people around the globe because it’s considered illegal and/or murder. So, we don’t talk about it or have discussions about it until we reach a certain age in our lives, while others grow up living in a country where they know exactly what is euthanasia and how its administered to people. Euthanasia has various views on whether or not it should be legal or illegal. People base this on various aspects such as religion, belief system, culture and any more aspects.

Although Euthanasia is legal in about 9 countries and 7 U.S states South Africa doesn’t seem to agree with them. South African law doesn’t protect euthanasia or assisted suicide as, because it’s seen as murder in the court of law. In our constitution it has many laws and rights about the protection of life, but there isn’t any stating whether or not you have the right to the choice of death. The law states that a person can tell a doctor or their friend to help them in committing suicide by providing drugs, therefore you don’t have the intentionally kill that person, but helping them with a request, however, that person is not alive to defend your actions in a court of law.”. There was however a case in 2015, a doctor fulfilled on of his patients request to euthanasia and wasn’t prosecuted for is actions. The judge stated that the person was meant to be helped by a doctor either by injecting of a poison or by giving the patient the proper amount of poison to inject into to himself.

Some terms associated with euthanasia and assisted suicide: Non-voluntary euthanasia: the patient is not able to ask for help and the decision is made by trusted doctor and/or close family members or friends (e.g. Turning off life-support machine), passive euthanasia: life support is for terminally ill patients and given in the form of high doses of medication to ease pain, active euthanasia: physician-assisted suicide, which is illegal in South Africa and can te doctor can be sentenced to jail, assisted suicide: the doctor doesn’t administer the medicine, but supplies it to the patient.

On the Southern Hemisphere there’s a country that thinks differently, Belgium. On the 13 February 2014 Belgium legalised euthanasia. A lower house of parliament approved the law, which was passed by the senator. Those who wish to be injected when being euthanised has no age limit, however the parents must agree with the decision. When a doctor performs the procedure, they must ensure that: the patient has reached the legal age to be euthanised, legally aware and conscious at the moment of making the request (which has to be voluntary, repeated and well considered ), the patient must experience constant and unbearable physical or mental pain, resulting an incurable and serious disorder, caused by an accident or illness

When the doctor is practicing euthanasia, they must inform the patient the conditions and life expectancy, the possible treatments and lastly possible care for the terminal illness (this is before euthanasia is taken place and the doctor is evaluating the patients mental and physical illness.). If the patient is completely convinced and have no external pressure, they’ll consult other physicians and discuss their disorder to confirm suffering, discuss the request with a nursing team and discuss with the patient’s family members. Next, they’ll write a written request; with a date, signed by the patient and was written in the presence of 2 witnesses (if they aren’t able to do so on their own, every legally aware person of the correct age can draw up a written request for them. They’ll have to include that the patient is no longer conscious, the condition they have is irreversible and that the patient is suffering. From a constant and incurable disorder). The physician must allow 1 month between the written request and the actual procedure.

I do agree with these certain aspects of euthanasia, because I was taught not to hurt or kill others, but why should I let them suffer. It’s better to let them rest peacefully than let them live the rest of their lives in pain, but I believe when they’re above the age of 80 when they’ve lived a full and prosperous life. If they are above that age their last resort should be euthanasia, because it’ll cause a big impact on their families and everyone they leave behind when they die. If we kill young people, we could kill the person that’s could solve world problems that people are complaining about, things like global warming, world hunger, poverty or even an activist in their country for unfair discrimination. My point is that if we killing people, we are killing our future and some knowledge from the past that needs to be taught. I do agree that people have the right to life and they and choose when they want to die and how they live their lives, however death is something that’s permanent and a lot of the time we use it as an excuse to fix temporary problems. What if you stayed alive for one more day and you became the person; they use to find the cure for your disease or they found treatment for the pain until they find a permanent solution. If a person was terminally ill and doctors can do nothing more for them then I would support the use of euthanasia but it’s still considered suicide if you voluntarily choose to be euthanised and I don’t believe in suicide as a Christian it’s a sin and since you can’t ask for forgiveness you will go to hell and you just landed yourself eternal suffering and I don’t want anyone to experience that kind of pain and suffering.

In Buddhism they don’t seem to discuss their opinion on euthanasia or how they deal with it. However, they seem to consider volunteering to perform or take part in euthanasia as wrong, because it shows that one’s mind is in a bad state and allowed physical or mental suffering to happen. To keep a state where they’re no longer in mental pain is to take pain killing medication and meditate, so you won’t have to consider suicide or euthanasia. They might argue that taking part in assisted suicide will give you a bad mental state, so they try and avoid euthanasia. Buddhists believe that when a person dies their thoughts should be selfless and enlightened, free from anger, hate or fear. This means that suicide is only acceptable when a person has achieved enlightenment.

Another example of a religious view on euthanasia is Hinduism. Most Hindu’s would say that doctors shouldn’t allow a patient to be euthanised, because it causes the soul to separate from the body at an unnatural time; causing damage the karma of the patient and the doctor. Some believe it’s wrong, because it breaches the teaching of ‘Ashima’, but some say that helping to end a painful life is a good deed. Hindu’s are influenced by their particular culture rather than ideas of faith. They believe in reincarnation of the soul (atman)- some of them aren’t even human. Their ultimate aim is to achieve ‘moksha’, the liberation of the cycle of death and rebirth. A soul’s next life is determined by the karma of a soul. ‘moksha’ can’t be achieved unless they have good karma, or you weren’t violent and caused harm to others.

Killing is seen as an interference with the soul’s liberation and bring bad karma to the murderer of the soul. They believe your final thoughts are very important to the process of reincarnation and euthanasia can affect their state of mind. Keeping someone on a Life-support machine is seen as bad as practicing euthanasia, however it is a temporary attempt to heal someone would be seen as good karma. The only acceptable way to end your life in Hinduism is via prayopavesa or fasting to death. Its acceptable due to the fact that it’s a natural death, and non-violent, unlike suicide this is a slow process; giving the patient time to prepare himself and those around them for their death, it’s only used when your body has served its purpose and is now useless, lastly suicide is associated with feelings of frustration, depression or anger; prayopavsa is associated with feelings of serenity. ‘Prayopavesa’ has to be publicly announced, must be done under community regulation, if you can’t perform normal body purification and if death seems imminent or the condition is so bad you can’t enjoy life.

Although many people around the world will have their own opinions, this project has opened my eyes to new areas on euthanasia but has only created exceptions for my idea of euthanasia. So, my opinion of euthanasia still stands that some aspects of euthanasia should be legal however to be considered a last resort to any treatment to physical or mental disorders. The future is bright and assisted murder is destroying the warriors and the leaders of tomorrow, because it’s the people that build a nation.

References:

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2. 2019, The end of the line-euthanasia in South Africa, SD law Cape Town Attorneys, Available at : https://www.sdlaw.co.za/euthanasia-in-south-africa/, [Accessed 26 Oct. 2019]
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4. Bbc.co.uk. (2014). BBC - Religions - Buddhism: Euthanasia and suicide. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/buddhistethics/euthanasiasuicide.shtml [Accessed 26 Oct. 2019].
5. Bbc.co.uk. (2007). BBC - Religions - Hinduism: Euthanasia, assisted dying and Suicide. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/hinduethics/euthanasia.shtml [Accessed 26 Oct. 2019].
6. Patientsrightscouncil.org. (2013). Belgium | Patients’ Rights Council. [online] Available at: http://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/site/belgium/ [Accessed 26 Oct. 2019].
7. Smets, T., Bilsen, J., Cohen, J., Rurup, M. and Deliens, L. (2010). Legal Euthanasia in Belgium. Medical Care, [online] 48(2), pp.187-192. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27798426?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents [Accessed 26 Oct. 2019].