euthanasia and abortion

Question 1

What is a reason to be pro choice for abortion?

Answer 1

A woman has a right to choose what happens to her

Question 2

Why would people seek abortion?

Answer 2

• health with suffer
• cannot support the child
• child likely to be severely disabled and have a long quality of life

Question 3

What are reasons to be pro life for abortion?

Answer 3

• A foetus is a life that already possesses the full DNA
• The woman’s rights shouldn’t outweigh the foetus’s rights
• Adoption is an alternative method

Question 4

Why is the Catholic Church pro life?

Answer 4

The Bible teaches ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you’ which means God creates life and has a plan for every life even before they are born, meaning abortion is man destroying God’s creation and going against God’s wishes

Question 5

What was condemned in the Humane Vitae about abortion in 1968?

Answer 5

The Catholic Church condemned abortion, and prevented women from having abortions or using birth control

Question 6

Why might Protestant Christians be pro choice?

Answer 6

The Bible teaches ‘love thy neighbour’, meaning we must show compassion to other humans so if a woman has been raped she may suffer mentally if she carries the child, so although abortion is evil (taking a life), it is less evil than forcing the woman to keep the baby, so abortion can occasionally be the most loving thing to do

Question 7

Why are some evangelical Christians pro life?

Answer 7

If they believe life begins at conception, the Bible teaches ‘Do not kill’, meaning abortion is wrongfully killing life and therefore going against God’s wishes

Question 8

Ethics - the Doctrine of double effect?

Answer 8

Doing something morally good may have a bad result eg. If the woman’s life is at risk

Question 9

Ethics - situation ethics?

Answer 9

Applies to what is the most long thing to do in the circumstances.
May not always fit with Christian principles but it acknowledges the circumstances in which difficult decisions need to be made

Question 10

What is voluntary euthanasia?

Answer 10

Ending life painlessly when someone in great pain asks for death

Question 11

What is non-voluntary euthanasia?

Answer 11

euthanasia?
Ending someone’s life painlessly when they are unable to ask, but you have good reason for thinking they would want you to do so

Question 12

What is active euthanasia?

Answer 12

When a 3rd party administers a drug which will ultimately end the patient’s life

Question 13

What is non-treatment euthanasia?

Answer 13

When a doctor chooses to withhold treatment from a patient as they believe they won’t get any better

Question 14

Arguments for euthanasia?

Answer 14

Mercy
Relieve pain and suffering
Saves medical costs
Allows a gentle death
Allows them to choose hoe and when they die
Patient dies with dignity rather than slowly deteriorating

Question 15

Arguments against euthanasia?

Answer 15

A doctor might be wrong in concluding someone can never recover
The patients, family, and friends might have just as much agony if they don’t try every option
The sanctity of life is absolute with no exceptions

Question 16

What is the story of Job?

Answer 16

God wants to test faith
Job looses everything and everyone he cares about
He gets very ill
Loses all his wealth
Wife tells him to ‘Curse God and die!’
Never loses faith and remains faithful to God and is then rewarded

Question 17

What does the story of Job teach about euthanasia?

Answer 17

teach about euthanasia?

He as able to recover despite losing everything, therefore proving recovery is possible

Question 18

What is the Hospice movement?

Answer 18

The gradual change in medicine from seeing death as a failure to catering to the dying and terminally ill.

Question 19

What will most Christians argue about euthanasia?

Answer 19

No one has the right to end their lives and real compassion is sharing the pain in a comforting way