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Catholic Views On Euthanasia

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Euthanasia derives from ancient Greek which means “Gentle and easy death”. According to the Magisterium (The magisterium is the special teaching authority of the Church), euthanasia is the deliberate action or refusal to act in order to bring an end to the life of a suffering person. Euthanasia, also known as ‘mercy killing’, is split into three different categories; voluntary (when a suffering person has requested it), non voluntary (when there has been no request or consent from the suffering. person), and involuntary (when it is carried out against the suffering person’s wishes). Euthanasia is a very topical and controversial debate in today’s society, whether it be internationally or locally. A small number of countries have already passed …show more content…

In this day and age many people mix up the meanings of ethical and moral principles, some even wrongly believe they both have the same meaning. Ethics is the systematic, reflective theory of what is right or wrong influenced by principles of justice. Ethics consist of the standards of behavior our society accepts. In a pastoral letter to the people of the catholic church on euthanasia in 1995, it reflects the churches teachings and warns the community of the ‘slippery slope’. The slippery slope refers to the side effects if legislation was made to legalise euthanasia, the slippery slope is a major fear and concern of the Catholic church. the slippery slope is the fear that if legalised, euthanasia will lead from voluntary to non voluntary or involuntary practices. The Church has seen first hand the effects of the legalisation of euthanasia in Belgium, Belgium has deemed that voluntary as well as involuntary to be normal practice and accepted in their own society. Belgium allows people above the age of 16 to be euthanized if they have a incurable disease, the disease does net have to be deemed deadly either. The country has gone so far in allowing and promoting euthanasia that they are now euthanizing down syndrome children at birth. Not only does this seem immoral in the eyes of the church, it breaks one of the key ethical principles of the catholic church. This breaks the churches major ethical principles of human dignity and the respect for human life. The Catholic church views human life as possessing dignity and value as it is created in god's own image, to euthanize is to break a person's dignity and value. Every single person is created in the image of god therefore they are seen in god's eyes as valuable and worthy of respect. Defined by dictionary.com, “dignity is the state or quality of being

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