Exodus 23:7
Our Judeo-Christian Heritage
Euthanasia is morally and biblically wrong. Euthanasia is defined as “the act or practice of ending the life of a person suffering from an incurable illness or injury, or better known as mercy killing.” As believers, we should seek to safeguard the God-given right to life, to which each person is entitled. According to the humanistic philosophy if you’re old, mentally ill, or severely handicapped you should be allowed to die. The listed individuals have a God-given life and spiritual desires that should be treated with compassion, dignity, and encouragement. Proverbs 6:16-10...”The Lord hates...hands that shed innocent blood and a heart that devises wicked plans.” We are urged to “keep far from a false matter..in not slaying the innocent or righteous.” Those who desire to destroy other individuals by injections are classified as “wicked.” Exodus 23:7 states, “Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify the wicked.”
I. Historical Aspects of Euthanasia
When Hitler of Nazi Germany issued his direct order for euthanasia in 1939, all German state institutions were required to report on patients who had been ill for at least five years or who were not able to work. The decision of which patients should be killed was based entirely on a brief questionnaire. The Nazi authorities who issued the death sentences were professors of psychiatry at major universities in Germany. The professors never saw the individuals personally.
The first to be killed in the Middle Ages and during the holocaust in the 1940's were the aged, the infirmed, the senile, the mentally retarded and defective children. The German Nazi power even went so far as to exterminate children with badly modeled ears, epileptic seizures and bedwettters.
According to a new service publication, “The mass extermination of Germany’s undesirables began with the acceptance of the attitude which is basic to the euthanasia philosophy, there is such a thing as life not worthy to be lived.” This is the same philosophy that is accepted today with abortion, infanticide and euthanasia.
II. Present Day Concept of Euthanasia
Euthanasia is not a mere fear for the future. It has survived and is now present in the American Medical practice. Doctors in the United States face the medical ethical decisions of starving “undesirables to death or administering fatal injections. “Voices in our governments are looking for ways to reduce health care costs.” Mercy Killing by Denyse Handlen.
Well meaning people are attracted to what may seem to be the beneficial aspects of some type of euthanasia. Americans must not be misled or tranquilized by the assurances that the practice is limited to the terminally ill. Abortion was also once proposed as a last resort in desperate cases. Today it has become a common practice for birth control. “To say that this subject can be carefully controlled is either naive or deceitful,” The Right to Live, The Right to Die - Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General.
Former Governor Richard Lamb of Colorado shocked the nation when he told a group of health lawyers that “sick people have a duty to die and get out of the way and let the well society build a reasonable life.”
III. The Biblical Perspective of the Right to Life
I Corinthians 3:16-17 reminds us that our bodies are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in us. Our life is precious to God and to us. Euthanasia is moving into the spotlights and the movement continues to gather momentum in our land as a great moral issue. Pray for our nation.
Highlighted Contributing Churches and Organizations:
Zalma, Zalma, MO
Northeast Mississippi District WMA
Magnolia, Hattiesburg, MS
Antioch, Gilmer, TX
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