Topic 4 DQ 2

Re:Topic 4 DQ 2
Most generally Christians believe that suicide and euthanasia is wrong. “Christians have held that suicide is morally wrong because they have seen in it a contradiction of our nature as creatures, an unwillingness to receive life moment by moment from the hand of God without ever regarding it as simply “our” possession”(Meilander,2013). The first obvious reason is that God commanded us to not murder. The confusion about these issues is that we at some point start to belief that our life is our own and that we have an obligation to relieve a person from suffering. The main reason I feel that assisted suicide is wrong is that our bodies were given to us from God to be treated as a temple to house our spirit. Once we decide that we are going to commit suicide or assist someone in suicide, we then are stating that our bodies are our own and God has no dominion over it. I believe that our own comfort and joy is second to that which God would have done with our lives through his plan for us. This process or plan also includes dealing with depression or the pain and suffering or a disease; taking one’s life denies loved ones the opportunity to learn patience and love to someone. It also robs God of the opportunity to perform miracles.
Although there are many right answers to this topic, I personally believe that a good firm Christian understanding from an eternal perspective allows that we cannot assist someone in suicide and we should not perform suicide on ourselves. We sometimes try and become so independent of God we say things like “it is my life to do as I please.” Once we have made those statements we are alienating God from our life, truly as faithful Christians we must allow Gods plan to play out through us as we endure the hardship that this live affords us. We also help and give compassion to those who are suffering and enduring especially those without an eternal perspective. “Understanding compassion and care in this way, we seek to learn to stand with and beside those who suffer—with the man as an equal, not as a lord over life and death, but determined not to abandon them as they live out their personal histories up against that limit of death which we all share. For us, therefore, the governing imperative should be not “minimize suffering,” but “maximize care” (Meilander,2013).