Too Busy to Care?

Lynda M. CookeEng 104

Colorado Christian University

Euthanize

My name is Lynda Cooke. I am a full-time student at Colorado Christian University. My major is Psychology &Ethics and Biblical Certification.

Today, I shall discuss the topic of death.

Many Americans feel uneasy about the topic of death, however, every life on earth will one day end.

With a faith in Christ, death need not be feared.

Is Life a Possession?

Human Ownership God’s Ownership

Human’s OwnershipFollow Oregon and Washington

Legalize Physician Assisted Suicide. Arguments For :

•My Body, My Life, My Choice.

•Death With Dignity.

According to Turner (1997),

With improved capabilities to intervene to decrease the number of deaths, there is a shift towards a prolonged process of dying. Patients then have time to develop an understanding of what they might experience during the latter stages of their illnesses, and want the opportunity to decide if they are capable of enduring such experiences.

Leads to Euthanasia, as legal in the Netherlands

God’s Ownership

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deu. 18:19-20, RSV).

Euthanasia in The Netherlands

Dr. Verhagen

The Netherlands euthanizes

600 newborns every year

"Dilemmas regarding end-of-life decisions for newborns with a very poor quality of life and presumably unbearable suffering and no hope of improvement are shared by physicians throughout the world."

Euthanasia In the United States

In August, 2005, prior to the arrival ofHurricane Katrina in New Orleans

Dr. Ana Pau injected four non-critical patients with a lethal dose of morphine and Versed prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina; all four were Do Not Resuscitate, changing it to Do Not Rescue

She methodically and purposefully killed the patients rather than move them to safety.

Studies show that Human Contact

provides a person with meaning.

Ternestedt's (2010)

As proven in the Netherlands, legalized euthanasia follows the legalization of physician assisted suicide.

Once euthanasia become legal, the following people fall under the criteria, set by the law, to be either voluntarily or involuntarily euthanized.

The Danger of legalized

Physician Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia condemns these faces to death

Jesus burst out in tears

(Jn. 11:35, INV)

Solution1. Care for those who are weak, ill, or at the end-of-life,

“I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

(Mat. 25:36)

2. Support our physicians to keep their Hippocratic oath, "I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.“

(Stubbs, 2009)

References

Campbell, C. (2000, January). Euthanasia and religion. the unesco courier,53(1). 36-39.

Drew, G. (2010, August). Euthanasia and the myth of mastery, Stimulus, 18(3). 45-46.

Dwyer, L.L., Hansebo, G., Andershed, B., Ternestedt, B.M. (2010). Nursing home residents' view on dying and death: Nursing home employee's perspective. International journal of older people nursing, 351-360.

Koch, T. (2008). Were polio to return today. Salon: Canadian medical association.178(9). 1244. Lugosi, C.I., (2007, November 1). Natural disasters, unnatural deaths: The killings on the life

care floors at Tenet's Memorial Medical Center after hurricane Katrina. Issues in law and medicine, 23. 71-85.

Nolan, S. (2010). Review. [Review of the book: Is there a Christian case for assisted dying? Voluntary euthanasia reassessed,. by P. Badham]. Practical Theology, 392-394. doi: 10.1558/prth.v3i3.392.

References

Stubbs, J.W. (2009, July/August). Universal care frees doctors to take 'all measures required'. ACP Internist. Retrieved from: http://www.acpinternist.org/archives/2009/07/presidents.htm

The Holy Bible: Harper study Bible revised standard version. (1988). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Turner, L. (1997). Euthanasia and distinctive horizons of moral reasoning. Morality.2(3). 191-205.

Verhagen, E., Sauer, P. J. J. (2005, March 10). The groningen protocol: Euthanasia in severely ill newborns. New England journal of medicine, 352(10). 959-962.

Wijsbek, H. (2012). 'To thine own self be true': On the loss of integrity as a kind of suffering. Bioethics, 26(1). 1-7. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8519.210.01801.x.