Euthanasia

BIBLICAL POINT OF REFERENCE:

"'Be not wicked to excess, and be not foolish. Why should you die before your time?'"

~Ecclesiastes 7:17

Remember that wonderful Philosophy class I've been taking this semester? Well we've been discussing euthanasia for the past week, and I thought it was about time I wrote on the subject. So here we go! For those of you who may not have heard of the term euthanasia, the definition (brought to you once again by the ever so splendid Google) is: "the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. The practice is illegal in most countries." Some synonyms include "mercy killing" and "assisted suicide". Something that philosophers are quick to point out is that there are two kinds of euthanasia: active and passive. Active euthanasia involves actively killing a patient directly, whereas passive euthanasia involves letting a patient die without any direct interference. So obviously, this is going to be a huge debate, because many would argue that it is more important to relieve people from their suffering than for them to keep living in pain. I don't want to go into specific examples (trust me, they are out there if you want to read about them), but I do want to make the standpoint of the Catholic Church very clear: Euthanasia, in any form, is wrong. There are no "special circumstances" or anything that will change this view. Euthanasia is wrong. But why, you may ask? To put it plainly, one of the 10 Commandments is "You shall not kill." God doesn't mean "You shall not kill unless someone wants to be relieved of their suffering" or "You shall not kill unless someone has an incurable disease and wants to die"; God means "You shall not kill". So don't. The 10 Commandments are the foundation and fundamental laws of God and our belief system as Catholics, and we need to follow them. You don't have to look any further (you can if you want to though) to know what's right and wrong in God's eyes, especially when we are talking about when and how people die.

God gave us our lives, and with them He gave us crosses to bear, some seemingly larger than others. But He has also given us a time to come home to Heaven, and we should not take any steps to get there sooner or before our time. My challenge for you ladies today is to reflect on the harm of euthanasia, and remember that God will call you home when it is your time. Until then, live life to the fullest, and live life to the holiest. Your Laughing Sister, ​Callahan

Check out the REGRET and WHEN LIFE DRAGS YOU DOWN quotes pages!