1. Establishing
Christian A
World View

2. Euthanasia and suicide
In a discussion of the sacred nature of life, an equally challenging subject has to do with euthanasia (mercy killing/assisted suicide) and suicide itself.
What principles from Scripture will aid us in deciding these two issues?

3. Bible Examples of Euthanasia
Judges 9:52-55 – “So Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and approached the entrance of the tower to burn it with fire. But a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull Then he called quickly to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that it will not be said of me, ‘A woman slew him.’”

4. 1 Samuel 31:3-5
“The battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor bearer, ‘Draw your sword and pierce me through with it, otherwise these uncircumcised will come and pierce me through and make sport of me.’ But his armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it. When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him.”

5. Obvious disapproval of Euthanasia
No message from God favoring euthanasia.
Saul’s armor bearer obviously believed it to be wrong so took his own life as well.
David (2 Sam. 1) puts to death a pretender who said he was the one to kill Saul.

6. Important Questions
Can I morally choose to die? (except heroically to save others)
Can I morally choose to kill someone else in an euthanasia setting (does not include wartime or for crimes)
Can suicide ever be moral?
Do medical personnel have a moral obligation to keep comatose or terminally ill patients alive by artificial means?

7. What Is Euthanasia? Greek = Good Death
Active Euthanasia = assisting someone to die, usually by means of fatal injection of drugs.
Passive Euthanasia = Allowing a person to die by not doing anything necessary to keep them alive – such as connecting life support systems.

8. Defining Murder From Scripture
Realize that humans are unique amongst all created beings.
Genesis 1:26 -- Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

9. So, God assigns death penalty
Genesis 9:6-7 – “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man. “As for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”
God expresses the sinfulness of taking a human life.

10. Killing The innocent forbidden
Exodus 20:13 – “You shall not murder.”
Deuteronomy 5:17 – “You shall not murder.”
In both statements of the law of God, murder is forbidden. God establishes certain laws dealing with murder.

11. Clarifying acts of murder
Exodus 21:12-14 – “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. If, however, a mans acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die.”

12. Leviticus 24:17-22
“If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death. The one who takes the life of an animal shall make it good, life for life. If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him. Thus the one who kills an animal shall make it good, but the one who kills a man shall be put to death. There shall be one standard for you….”

13. Abiding Principles about life
Psalm 24:1 – “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.
Matthew 5:21-22 – “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”

14. Deuteronomy 32:39
“See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; it is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.”
Only God can determine life and death and when a person will die. Men should not make that decision except for crimes.

15. Do Not Resuscitate Orders
Choosing not to be kept alive with artificial or heroic means is neither suicide nor euthanasia. It is not murder.
No desire to be hooked to life support.
No desire to be resuscitated in case of heart failure.
No desire to have life prolonged with life support in the case of coma.

16. Suicide? Or Faith and Hope?
False picture painted by those in favor of active euthanasia: “Living hell” or “Mercy killing to allow for dignified death.”
They have no idea what hell is really all about.
What gives them the right to decide what is dignified?
What gives them the right to decide when a person’s life will end?
God retains those rights.

17. Mark 8:34
“And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
If we wish to be like Jesus, we are not anticipating a quite, peaceful, dignified death. We are willing to follow Him to a cross.

18. Philippians 2:8
“Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Jesus died a violent, undignified death, accused of blasphemy and nailed to a cross. Why should we expect to die peacefully?

19. Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Why commit suicide or request euthanasia if you’re living by faith?

20. Can We Die Courageously instead?
Rather than seeking DIGNIFIED death (an oxymoron), seek to die courageously.
Seek to die faithfully.
Seek to die hopefully.
Seek to die confidently.
In Christ we can overcome any kind of death in store for us.

21. Remember: Death is not the end
John 5:24 -- “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
1 Timothy 6:12 – “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

22. Psalm 94:17-23
If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence. If I should say, “My foot has slipped,” Your lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up. When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul. Can a throne of destruction be allied with You, one which devises mischief by decree? They band themselves together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death…

23. … But the Lord has been my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge. He has brought back their wickedness upon them and will destroy them in their evil; the Lord our God will destroy them.”
Trust in God and seek refuge in Him. He determines our life and death. Not we ourselves or others at our request.