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John's Case: The Difference Between Hastening Death

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In the text, we discovered the difference between hastening death and the intent to cause death. In John’s case, we find that any safe amount of available pain killers was not enough to alleviate the pain that he was experiencing. In this situation, that puts him in a very small group (Rae, 2009, p. 226). One scenario is that if pain killers did suffice, then I believe that the law of double effect could be employed, whereby John could be put into an unconscious state, so that his vitals could decrease to the extent that he could be allowed to pass naturally (Rae, 2009, pp. 226-227). Notwithstanding, Phillips (2015) noted that “there are moral standards which take precedence over the individual physician’s judgment (para. 2). For this reason, I believe that this decision would require deliberation and prayer on the part of the medical team. …show more content…

For example, King David was noted as saying that “your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:16, English Standard Version). Additionally, in 2 Kings, we discover Hezekiah weeping over the pronouncement made by God’s prophet concerning his imminent death. Despite this reality, in His mercy, God added fifteen more years to the king’s life (2 Kings 20:6). This story and others demonstrates that God is in control of our existence here in this life (John 11:43-44; Hebrews

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