Before I became a Christian I believed in capital punishment, abortion and euthanasia.After I became a Christian I turned to the Scriptures for a full investigation of what God had to say.
I retained my belief in the death penalty as the teaching was clear, irrefutable and could only be criticised by deliberately muddling up personal and social requirements..
I changed my mind 100% about abortion and over years I have come to regard this practice with utter revulsion the more I have learned about it.
As regards euthanasia, I became one of the great 'really don't knows'. Any direct links to this matter are extremely hard to find in the Bible. Ironically, this is a topic I have had to teach and debate year on year with a great many pupils in RS lessons.
Euthanasia done in love cannot surely be murder, can it? Did Jesus ever require us to suffer beyond what we can bear? If Man is given the right to end guilty life, how can we still argue that only God may decide the 'when'?
But is this just suicide by any other name?
What we do to people would get us prosecuted were we to do the same to an animal at the end of its life. Has science 'moved the goalposts'?
If 'life-shortening' through heavy morphine doses is acceptable - why not go the whole way?
What about potential abuses? What of family members 'trying to get at the will'?
Do we 'love our neighbour' by extending his/her suffering?
If I am in that condition, I would not want to go on - or would I?
What of those who are healed or whose disease goes into unexpected remission?
No. I tend to err in favour of euthanasia but then pull back.
Tricky. Sorry if I have muddied the waters for you, dear reader.
