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Christianity and Euthanasia
Suicide is a emotionally charged topic for many Christian believers. That was not the case in pre-Christian times. In the ancient world, it was a courageous act to commit suicide when there was no prospect of a meaningful future. The Hippocratic Oath obliged the physician not to commit murder on behalf of a third party. The doctor had no moral problem with assisting suicide, he was merely a willing instrument. It was an honor to help dying because of unbearable suffering (physical and/or psychological) or a fulfilled life. In ancient times it was unthinkable to leave the power of life and death to a doctor. The decision was up to the one who wanted to die. There was no patronizing[1]. Among a number of North American Indian tribes and the Eskimos it was a custom for the elderly to sit in the snow on a winter day to mortify their completed lives. In Japan there were local traditions whereby someone who turned seventy years old would retreat to a mountain top to die there.
Moral principles depend on the time, place, community, culture, religion, context of current life, requirements of survival, etc.
Morality is based on subjective social conventions: tacitly accepted agreements about what is socially appropriate and customary in society. Due to democratic developments, the emphasis on individual rights, secularization and changes in the implicit social contract, the law is not sacred and unchangeable. Not so long ago the death penalty is abolished and drugs such as opium and cocaine were still permitted in the early twentieth century. Abortion, homosexuality, etc., on the other hand, were prohibited until recently. The law can change (e.g. through Civil Disobedience, as was the case with abortion in the Netherlands). The behavior of the modern citizen should be determined by his own conscience. This does not necessarily mean obeying the law, but asking yourself whether in a certain situation a law to be obeyed is morally acceptable for you personally. According to Hannah Arendt, morals and ethics are table manners, a thin layer of varnish[2]. From birth the environment conditions everyone with values and norms, creating a network of artificial ‘instincts’: in the Netherlands the Dutch culture with its Christian religious background.
Is suicide described in the Bible as a crime, shame or (mortal) sin?
Kuitert (1924 – 2017; Professor of Theology, in particular Dogmatics and Ethics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam) writes in Suicide, what is against it? Suicide in a moral perspective (Ten Have/Baarn 1983) about the suicides in the Bible, which are explicitly mentioned. Below are four examples.In Judges 16:23-11, Samson commits suicide to kill Philistine enemies of Israel. He is considered a hero of the faith and his family gives him the normal, honorable burial in his father’s grave.In Samuel 31, 3-6, King Saul and his armor bearer committed suicide, falling upon their swords. The text never suggests a crime. On the contrary: the inhabitants of Jabesh take the bodies of Saul and his sons from the Philistines and give them an honorable burial.In Samuel 17:23 Achithophel hangs himself, but nowhere does the narrator give the impression that Achithophel has done something shameful or sinful. He is buried with honors.Matthew 27:3-5 tells how Judas hanged himself, but there is no condemnation of his suicide.It is remarkable that the Old Testament with its detailed regulation of daily life and the New Testament do not contain any law or instruction regarding suicide or the treatment of suicidal people.In short: there is no condemnation of suicide anywhere in the Bible. Karl Barth (1868-1968; influential Protestant theologian) also admits that the Bible does not explicitly prohibit suicide.
Is the Christian rejection of suicide justified?
In early Christianity, the rejection of suicide begins with the Augustinian opinion (354-430) that the sixth commandment “Do not commit murder” (Ex 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17) includes killing another human being as well as of itself. That ‘Don’t commit murder’ would mean that you are not allowed to kill (innocent) people, including yourself. However, the verb for kill in Hebrew texts means to murder, it does not stand for suicide anywhere and in Greek it also literally says ’to murder’. This involves killing another person against their will. A second argument of Augustine is ‘I cause death, I give life’ (Deuteronomy 32:29). This can easily be understood passively as: ‘I also let people who want to kill themselves die, after all, I also let that death happen’. This text does not necessarily contain a ban on suicide. Through Thomas Aquinas (1225-1275), the rejection of suicide has remained decisive in the Christian churches. It has led to ‘God gives, God takes away’. But what is ‘giving’ if the gift does not belong to the recipient. Doesn’t ‘Once given, it remains given?’ apply to God? After God has given you your life, you are no longer God’s property. By giving, God has relinquished your life and he has given you a free will and self-determination.The Christian rejection of suicide is unjustified, because in the Bible suicide is never described as a crime, shame or sin. In my opinion, the interpretations of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas are just their opinions and nothing more.
Is Assisted Suicide criminal?
Kuitert distinguishes between suicide, euthanasia and assisted suicide. In suicide, someone deliberately ends their life, regardless of the circumstances, intention or causality that play a role. Euthanasia is helping someone die gently and with dignity at their request if they can no longer help themselves to die (due to illness, old age, exhaustion or whatever cause). According to Kuitert, in Assisted Suicide the person involved performs the act himself or herself and the assistance can consist of providing the means that result in death and/or a space where someone can die undisturbed.Kuitert[3] believes that a doctor who intends to carry out an end-of-life request, but chooses to refrain from doing so (terminal palliative sedation), prolongs the patient’s suffering. The doctor even does this unnecessarily, if we take his intention to let the patient die seriously, and is therefore liable for the patient’s additional suffering. The doctor runs away from his responsibility. Kuitert believes that we should not force people to continue living against their will.
This is also the starting point of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR): a person has the moral and legal right to commit suicide. Unusual is that suicide is not a criminal offense in the Netherlands, but assisted suicide is. In 1886, Assisted Suicide was made punishable as delictum sui generis: an offense that in itself, because of its intrinsic punishability, constitutes a crime. The Explanatory Memorandum makes it explicit that it concerns punishing the violation of respect for human life, regardless of the perpetrator’s motive. The Advocate General states that the current maintenance of this criminalization is regarded as a ‘specialization of the general respect for human life’. However, for most people, the Christian-based starting point of this Sanctity of Life has changed into the Quality of Life (life can be evaluated and that can lead to the wish to commit suicide). Despite this social change, the Public Prosecution Service still enforces the Sanctity of Life doctrine and not or less the Quality of Life doctrine.
The ECtHR (European Court of Human Rights) recognizes the right of an individual to determine for himself how and when he wants to end his life, as one of the aspects of the right to respect for private and family life according to art. 8 ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights), provided that the person concerned has been able to reasonably assess his or her interests. Once suicide is a fundamental right, the inviolability of human life can no longer be a reason to ban Assisted Suicide. End-of-life assistance is permitted because otherwise the right to suicide remains an empty right. However, within the ‘margin of appreciation’ a state may determine which exceptions it makes for a ban on Assisted Suicide. In the Netherlands, this is the restrictive current Euthanasia legislation of 2001 that only allows the doctor to provide end-of-life assistance under certain conditions.
[1] https://www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/nl/artikel/6056/euthanasie-in-de-oudheid.html Anton van Hooff 2003; and Samuel J.Hirsch, proefschrift (thesis) 1882.
[2] Hannah Arendt Politiek denker (Political thinker) in Dirk de Schutter and Remi Peeters 3e druk blz 200 Klement Zoetermeer 2016.
[3] H.M.Kuitert Een gewenste dood. Euthanasie en zelfbeschikking als moreel en godsdienstig probleem. (A desired death. Euthanasia and Self determination as a moral and religious problem).(1981) Ten Have/Baarn.