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It has long been evident
that the major opposition to voluntary euthanasia is the Christian
(particularly Roman Catholic) Church. The scriptural reason for
this opposition has never been entirely clear to me. It is presumably
based on the Commandment Thou shalt not kill, a very simple, non-discursive,
unqualified directive which the Church has ignored for a very large
part of history. As for suicide, the Bible does not specifically
condemn the few acts of suicide that occur. As for suffering, Jesus
Christ performs a number of acts for the relief of suffering, and
nowhere does he ask that we should suffer on his behalf.
On reading Barbara Thiering's
book Jesus The Man I was impressed by her evidence from the
Bible that Jesus 'died' on the Cross in a remarkably short time
(she actually believes he did not die) and further thought led me
to the conclusion in the following article, printed in The Age on
13.4.98
THE FATHER,
SON AND EUTHANASIA by Rodney Syme (The Age, 13 April
1998)
My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? (Mark 15:34). These are some of the last recorded
words uttered by Jesus (in his pre-resurrected life), as he was
suffering on the cross on Golgotha. At this time it is relevant
to consider what these words mean.
Jesus, as the Son of God,
is calling to his Father. Understanding Jesus as human, we can appreciate
the extremely close empathic bond between him and God. His feeling
of being 'forsaken', or abandoned or ignored, in his suffering would
be sure to provoke a response from a loving Father, and it did.
Three verses later, without
any indication of the passage of time, Jesus cried out with a loud
voice and gave up the ghost. Did God intervene to relieve the suffering
of his only begotten son?
Dr Barbara Thiering, in her
book Jesus the Man indicates crucifixion was chosen in that
era because it caused slow agony in dying, which usually lasted
over days. Yet Christ was crucified at the third hour and died at
the ninth after only six hours on the Cross. As a healthy young
man this was unexpected, and indeed before he died he cried out
in 'loud' voice.
Moreover, when Jesus's followers
went to Pontius Pilate to claim his body for burial before the next
day (the Sabbath, when his body could not be moved under Hebrew
law), "Pilate marvelled if he were already dead" (Mark
15:44) and had to be convinced by a centurion that he was dead so
soon (after his side was pierced by a spear to confirm death).
Further, while Christ died
after six hours, the two thieves crucified beside him were still
alive, and their legs were broken to hasten their deaths and allow
all the bodies to be removed from the crosses.
The Bible is a simple but
incomplete record of events, yet these facts are corroborated in
the four Gospels; and the Bible is constantly referred to by the
Church as the source of Christian principle. I can only conclude
that Christ's death was expedited.
Christ's death on the cross
after suffering is highly symbolic as a Christian message, but as
such his suffering did not need to last for days. Did God intervene
in Christ's death? I find it highly likely that a father would respond
to his son's admonishing call not to ignore his suffering.
I conclude that God, in order
to relieve Christ's suffering, hastened his death at his request.
That is close to my definition of voluntary euthanasia, not exactly
so, because Christ hardly died with dignity.
Dr Rodney
Syme, President of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Victoria.
This brought forth the following
response from a representative of the Catholic Church:
Interpreting
the death of Jesus (The Age, 13/4)
In an Easter article that
must have struck many Christians as blasphemous, Rodney Syme offered
a new interpretation of Calvary: God killed Christ in order to relieve
his suffering.
Did Jesus ask for euthanasia?
Contemplating the horror ahead of him the night before he died,
Jesus was 'scared to death'. He shuddered, fainted and sweated blood,
and he prayed that the cup of wrath be taken from him. But he ended
his prayer: "Not my will, Lord, but your will be done."
Even the prospect of humiliation, pain and death did not dispense
him from the obedience to the Author of life.
Did God kill Jesus without
his consent? Dr Syme claims six hours crucifixion was insufficient
by itself. Yet Jesus had been subjected to endless trials, sleep
deprivation, scourging, beating, carrying his cross, physical and
psychological tortures before he even reached his execution.
There is no evidence at all,
in Scripture or tradition, that God killed Jesus for merciful or
other motives. On the contrary, Christians believe that in his dying,
God-made-man entered into the full horror of human suffering. Had
Jesus been given some 'quick fix', he would not only have repudiated
the Judeo-Christian injunctions against suicide and homicide, he
would have failed to enter fully into solidarity with suffering
humanity.
Caring for the dying is not
easy. It demands that 'hard loving' told in time, companionship
and bedside prayer as much as therapeutic and palliative medicine.
Faith may give suffering a new ('redemptive') significance. But
in the end, Christians join others in their incomprehension before
it, even as they proclaim their Easter faith that One has gone before
them through pain and death into a new life they hope to share.
In imitation of Christ's
resignation and trust, Christians pray that God's will be done even
as they pray for relief; they reverence their own lives and those
of others, and they do this without masochism, fatalism or suicidal
despair, but with magnanimity, freedom and real serenity. Whether
one likes this approach or not, its origin in the manner of Jesus'
dying is rather more plausible than the proposition that, until
Dr Syme, Christians have for 2000 years misunderstood the message
of Good Friday.
Fr Anthony
Fisher, Episcopal Vicar for Health Care, Catholic Archdiocese of
Melbourne
It seems to me Dr Fisher
accepts the argument that Jesus Christ did die unexpectedly quickly.
But, to me as a medical practitioner, gives some very lame reasons
for this observation. Indeed death by crucifixion is a death characterised
by circulatory failure and preceded by coma. The significance of
Jesus crying out in a 'loud voice' is that he was far from being
weakened or comatose, and that he died suddenly. Like all religious
critics of voluntary euthanasia, he implies that I said God killed
Jesus - I did not. Jesus was dying already, and I was suggesting
that God mercifully hastened his death; not a 'quick fix' as he
puts it, not an avoidance of suffering, but a merciful relief from
an excess of it. The message of Easter, of Christ's death through
suffering and sacrifice, is just as powerful whether Christ died
after six hours, sixty hours, or six days. I have seen many dying
patients suffer grievously for far longer periods.
Dr Fisher accuses me of blasphemy,
which is to utter foul impious talk, or profane abuse, which is
to treat with disrespect; a strange conclusion, since I was implying
that God was acting with sympathy and empathy and mercy, the latter
characteristic being repeatedly used to describe God throughout
the Bible. Not blasphemy, but merely a different view of events,
which is entirely consistent with a generous human interpretation
of Christian ethics. The Bible is an historical document, and as
such, is capable of interpretation in various ways. Christians who
have been puzzled by the church's traditional opposition to voluntary
euthanasia may take comfort in this more generous interpretation
and a more humane christian ethic.
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