At one time, I would have said euthanasia was ethical for animals who could not be saved. After all, who wants to watch an animal suffer? None of us do, and so we take our pets to a doctor who gives them a shot. Soon they are released from the pain to go to ‘pet heaven’ or wherever they go.
I have since, in light of the debate over assisted-suicide or euthanasia of people, changed my mind. I believe euthanasia of animals may have led us to value life less and to have a mind-set that says it’s OK to put someone out of their misery. I don’t really feel that euthanasia of animals is wrong, but I wanted to make a point.
Human life is not the same thing as animal life. Humans are made in God’s image, and they have a soul, a spirit, a value that cannot be measured. Allowing someone to die because they choose it is not the same as helping take that life. That is murder, and it is not ethical in any sense of the word. Just because life is hard doesn’t mean we have the right to leave any time we want to, or worse, to choose when someone else leaves this world.
Deliberate taking of life equals murder, plain and simple, and as such it should not find its way into debate because it shouldn’t occur to anyone that taking life is ethical. Unfortunately, we live in a world where this debate has become a hot-button topic, debated endlessly among those of us who care about the issue. In general, I don’t believe any change their minds once they take a stance on the issue. We each have strong feelings and strong reasons for our view on euthanasia and assisted-suicide. As a moral person, I take a stance against murder, whether it be hurting people or unborn babies. I believe this is a Biblical view as well. Any time we consider taking a life, we demean the lives of others and that, more than anything, makes euthanasia unethical.
