It is a pity, as the issue of the moral acceptability of these two practices is, in my opinion, in certain respects more basic and important than the issue of their legalisation. 2 The more personal question of whether Christians should regard medically assisted suicide and euthanasia as morally acceptable and as a result also promote and personally request it, plays a secondary role. In the present debate on medically assisted suicide and euthanasia the issue of legalisation dominates. And when it becomes clear that their death is imminent as a result of terminal illness they want to have a say regarding the time and manner in which they depart from this life. 1 They are no longer willing to leave decisions on medical procedures administered to them entirely in the hands of medical experts, especially not when these procedures will most likely lead to the prolongation and intensification of their own suffering. More and more people in South Africa, including Christians, are inadvertently influenced by the liberal value of individual autonomy. More and more family members and friends witnessing the prolonged and intense suffering of their loved ones would like to have the option to request medically assisted suicide or euthanasia should they find themselves in the same situation (cf. Where viral diseases in the past resulted in a relatively quick death for most people, the dying process in the case of the above mentioned diseases is mostly a prolonged one, often involving very high medical costs and intense suffering. Even if it is true that in South Africa HIV or Aids is still a prime cause of death, a large percentage of the population die of illnesses like cancer, heart disease, stroke and the complications of diabetes. Modern medicine has in most countries eliminated viral diseases as the prime cause of death.
The reason being, first of all, that even in a developing country like South Africa the rapid advance in medical science and technology has drastically changed the nature of the dying process for a significant number of people. There is no reason to believe that it will subside in the near future. The debate on the legalising of medically assisted suicide and euthanasia in the South African society has significantly intensified over the last few years. This moral prejudice can, however, in exceptional cases be outweighed by moral considerations in favour of medically assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia.
Certain Christian beliefs encourage terminally ill Christians to live a morally responsible life until their death and cultivate a moral prejudice against taking the life of any human being.
An effort is made to demonstrate that although the biblical message does not entail an absolute prohibition it does have normative ethical implications for deciding on medically assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. The inadequacy of both the view that the biblical message entails an absolute prohibition against these two practices, and the view that Christians have to decide on them on the basis of their own autonomy, is argued.
The article deals with the question: 'Is it morally acceptable for terminally ill Christians to voluntarily request medically assisted suicide or euthanasia?' After a brief discussion of relevant changes in the moral landscape over the last century, two influential, but opposite views on the normative basis for the Christian ethical assessment of medically assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia are critically discussed. May Christians request medically assisted suicide and euthanasia?ĭepartment of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics, University of Pretoria, South Africa
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