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David Hume's View Of Euthanasia

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While euthanasia still remains to be a moral issue at hand, especially with the growing complexity of the circumstances given, this paper will examine the issues using four theological perspectives discussed in the Theology 151 course: Scriptural, Systematic, Historical and Comparative Theology. For further brevity, the term euthanasia used throughout the paper is referred to as “active euthanasia” unless stated otherwise.
The paper will begin its discussion of euthanasia using the Scriptural perspective. The Scripture does not emphasize a fixed set of conducts to be followed but provides principles and values we are to apply in our respective scenarios in life. From the very beginning of the creation story, in the genesis account, human life …show more content…

Hume asserts that euthanasia does not violate one’s duty to God as God completely allows us, his shepherds of creation, to live our life’s purpose in this world with the continuous guidance of his natural laws that regulates the physical events happening in the world. Hume believes that every action we do, no matter how ordinary it is, alters the physical world. The use of euthanasia on one’s self, for one, is similar to “altering the flow of a river.” There is simply no crime committed in altering the current of a river and likewise should be said when no harm is brought upon to other when taking our own life. He also indicates our awareness regarding the plan of God for our respective lives, how he laid out our beginning, future and end. However, Hume points out that it is wrong to defy our own fates, in the sense that we try to prolong our stay here on earth through the use of medicine. Hume argues, “it would be equally criminal to act for the preservation of life as for its destruction.” The gravity of prolonging life with the use of medicine and ending life with the use of euthanasia is of equal weights and is why Hume supports the practice of euthanasia as an equivalent antithesis to

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