Life Library — Euthanasia
… And So the Toll Begins
Death will soon be referred to as choice, and politicians will solemnly dedicate themselves to making it "safe, legal, and rare."
Assisted Suicide: An Idol at Heart
When we flee to assisted suicide, even in the name of love and compassion, we flee from God. When we face difficult end-of-life decisions, the message of the cross reminds us that God, who expressed His compassion in Christ's death, can and does work powerfully through suffering to accomplish His will.
Biblical Insights
No pastor should deal with the problem of counseling in decisions of life and death without first understanding what God's Word brings to bear on the situation. This article considers certain key Bible passages relative to death, and thus provides the pastor with additional insights.
End-of-Life Issues: Reflecting God's Glory or Man's Folly?
When the sad story of Terri Schiavo returned to the national news in 2005, Rev. Matthew Harrison, then executive director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care, asked Life Ministries Director Maggie Karner to share her reflections.
Euthanasia and the Health Care Professional
It is generally recognized that doctors, nurses and hospital personnel may decline participation in what one believes to be a morally wrong act. Pharmacists outside hospitals, however, do not yet have the choice of refusing to to prepare drugs intended to induce abortion or cause death by assisted suicide or euthanasia.
From Healing to Relief of Suffering
The Christian response to medical ethics today is to speak the Word of truth to empty lives that believe lies which say there is no right or wrong and nothing more than the autonomy of the individual is at stake. We have the one thing needed and we need to share it.
Hippocrates or Hypocrite
Most doctors have taken an oath not to commit abortion or euthanasia.
I Want to Burden My Loved Ones
We shouldn't hesitate to empower our loved ones to make medical decisions for us as long as they avoid the futile question "What would he have wanted?" and content themselves with the question "What is best for him now?"
Pastoral Counseling and "Technical Brain Life"
The pastor's role and responsibility in cases of "technical brain life" are summarized regarding the pastor's responsibility to self, the legal profession, the medical profession and the patient-people (those who have the power to make a decision to "pull the plug or not pull the plug.")
Professor Death
Princeton hires a pro-death ethicist vilified by the rest of the world.
That They May Live
Assisted-suicide and euthanasia present the church, society, families and individuals with one of the most profound and emotionally charged ethical challenges of the modem era. The public controversy over assisted-suicide and euthanasia comes at one of the most challenging and potentially dangerous times in human history.
What Ought to Be and What We Ought Not Do
Christians weakened by the bearing of stressful burdens may not think in terms of right and wrong in the decisions they make but only in terms of relieving suffering. The cross alone points us to the helpless suffering that makes our helplessness in suffering bearable.