Euthanasia - Current Thoughts

Euthanasia has been a hot topic in New Zealand recently when (and after) a terminally ill woman, a lawyer, petitioned the Courts to allow her GP to bring forward her death. As it turned out, she did not live to hear the judgement, which went against her.

I wonder if, had there been the chance to look back on her life, after death, she would have acted differently. The matter of principle, after experiencing a natural demise, might not have seemed so important to her then.

In times past there has been a hefty strain of human cruelty in Christianity. Some people might say it comes through today in certain NZ Churches opposing a law change to allow a terminally ill person to shorten their life.

I’m no theologian, but could the opposition stem from the New Testament tradition that Jesus died bravely on the cross in great pain and humiliation? The logic might be that if Jesus, in human form, could do it without resorting to his Godly powers to take the easy way out, then why should the terminally ill be allowed the resort of euthanasia, even if they freely choose it?

It’s not like abortion, where a human life is taken without her or his consent.

The topic is one I’ll have to keep developing my thinking on.