Euthanasia—and My Neutral Opinion About It

Today has been quite tough for me. After failing a test and having a bad headache, I decided to take a rest. It’s mandatory for me to watch videos first before I sleep, so it was nice to watch a video that I had never seen before.
Vice, a digital media and broadcasting company based in North America, released a video about euthanasia. Euthanasia (or assisted suicide) is a way to end a life in order to relieve the pain that someone has been suffering. Euthanasia is usually proposed for someone who has an incurable illness, such as stage 4 cancer, ALS, Alzheimer’s, etc.
How Religions View Death
The end to excruciating pain might be a welcome escape for someone who has been sick all of their lives, but let’s view this issue from various religions’ perspectives about death. In Christianity, we can read in Romans 11:36: “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever. So be it.” It means that we don’t have to be afraid if we die later because we are already saved by Jesus Christ, and in Romans 8:10: “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” In other words, we are all going to die, but we don’t have to worry because (once again) we are saved by Him. In Islam, Allah has said about the undeniable death in An-Nahl (61): “The Almighty says, ‘When their specified time arrives, they cannot delay it for a single hour nor can they bring it forward,’ which means no one can reject their death, and they must wait for their time to come. In Al Baqarah (2:156), “To Allah (Almighty God) we belong, and to Him is our return,” i.e., all our lives are temporary, and we definitely belong to God, so someday, we are going to die to go back to Allah. So the question is, why do we bother so much about euthanasia and not just waiting to die, because we’re all ultimately going to die?
You can call me an agnostic, but I believe there are many people who feel as though God betrayed them by giving them a serious illness. (If I were in their shoes, I would say the same.) God said that we just have to live until our death comes, and if our death has been planned by God, does performing euthanasia make sense? It’s still our time to die, isn’t it?
The Patient’s and the Family’s Perspectives
For the family of the applicant of euthanasia, living with someone who’s facing a painful death is a frightening thought. Their happiness seems short, realizing that all the laughter that has been shared between them is not forever, and being worried about their sudden death is going to haunt them. They know that it is so painful to see their loved one forever struggling with the incurable illness, when they can’t do anything and no medicine can fight it. Euthanasia is the only way to make it easier and to watch the patient smile every day, knowing that they are going to die painlessly. For the patient, every minute is a struggle, and it feels as though nothing is important anymore since they’re practically waiting for their turn to die. Euthanasia becomes a viable option, and you just forget about God’s promise of a ‘smooth death.’ It’s quite understandable for me, because no one wants to deal with difficult things every day, even if it’s just a pain in your head.
The Final Word
Finally, in some cases, euthanasia is the only way to end a life full of pain. If we view this in a religious way, we definitely shouldn’t do this, but since it’s not my life, I believe the patient and their family should have the right to choose. Our responsibility is merely to tell them about the pros and cons. Until this world ends, religions will refuse the idea of euthanasia, and people who are trying to live with their illness are going to support it until they can die peacefully with it. Euthanasia and how religions oppose it will continue to be a social problem, and I have decided to remain neutral about it. What about you?

