Description
Life in all its fullness
In the well known key text John 3.16 the Evangelist says that the purpose of the incarnation is that those who put their trust in Christ might reach the destination of total fulfilment instead of that of absolute futility. This is a better framework than the traditional 'may not die' and receive or attain 'eternal life' because we all, whether believers or not, will one day experience the death of our physical bodies and eternal life is often thought of as life after death or 'going to heaven' rather than the new dimension of living which belongs to the reign of God which Jesus announced.
Many people look at someone who is severely disabled and think 'if I were like that I would rather die than live'. The comment is sometimes made that if a cat or dog were like that, it would be cruel not to 'have it put down.' So in terms of quality of life, the judgement of the observer is that the life quality of the disabled person is so reduced that it is not worth preserving. In such circumstances an act of euthanasia may be regarded as 'mercy killing' and it is the law regarding such acts as murder which is considered cruel rather than the act itself.
Integral to the modern approach to disability is to allow disabled persons to speak for themselves rather than presume to speak for them. It may be that the disabled person does express a strong wish to die but that must be heard in a context of various factors:
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John Bradley