| abstract |
For thousands of years, people have confronted death with fear, arising from an inherent sense of self-preservation, yet many people take their own lives for what they consider just reasons. Some fear pain, isolation, indignity, helplessness, and loss of autonomy. In modern times, physician-prescribed lethal medications are available to dying patients. Death from these drugs is sought for a "good death" or euthanasia (Greek for a peaceful, pain free death— ideally while asleep) and a release from suffering.
This dissertation will address the beliefs of Christians concerning the morality of physician assisted suicide (PAS). I will present a theory of its acceptability through a different interpretation (mine) of Christian scripture as compared to several modern and ancient philosophers regarding Christ's crucifixion and death.
In "Ethics in the Bible," found in The Spiritual Life, the biblical scholar, Jaco Gericke wrote, "The Bible contains . . . ethical assumptions about nature (of reality, existence, life, knowledge, truth, beliefs, good, and evil) . . . [and]of the ancient people who wrote about it. He implies past interpretations of biblical words may not be as we currently interpret them and therefore not valuable guides." These differences can be seen in the multiple-named editions of modern-day Bibles. Readers of these editions concede that their differing interpretations play an acceptable contemporary role in modern Christology.
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