Euthanasia and Abortion

The book "Legislating Morality" is by Frank Turek and Norman Geisler (1998). The issue that truly caught me was the connection between abortion and euthanasia. Abortion is defined by Webster-Merriam's online dictionary as "the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus: as a : spontaneous expulsion of a human fetus during the first 12 weeks of gestation." Euthanasia is defined as "the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy."

Abortion and euthanasia have much the same reasons for being enacted. A human life is ended because the person has become inconvenient to themselves or to someone else. When a person is in so much pain that living is a trial, a person has become inconvenient to themselves. When a person has become a financial and an emotional burden to their loved one, they have become inconvenient to their friends and family.

The logical supports for abortion are much the same, the fetus (baby) has become inconvenient to the mother for financial or emotional reasons. If the fetus is a source of rape or incest, the 24 living chromosomes become inconvenient to the mother because that life acts a reminder. If the the mother is unprepared to take care of the baby, that person has become financially inconvenient to the mother. There are other reasons given for abortions, (from webmd.com) teen mothers are aware they are not mature enough to have children, having a child would not possible above the poverty line, mental or physical conditions that would endanger the mother's health during pregnancy, and the child will have birth defects or deformity.

Because a child will be hard to raise, or will have a hard life, it does not make it right to kill that child. Their is little difference between a birthed baby and a fetus. Very little changes. The baby still needs the same things whether in the womb or out of it.

Because a person is in pain, desires to die, feels a loss of control or dignity, feels like an emotional burden or feels like a financial weight, it does not mean that that person has a right to kill him or herself and no one has the right to kill them.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness-"

According to moral law, we were given the right to life by our Creator. The right to life is the first right and the most important right, upon it all other rights are based and without it all other rights have no value. Since the right to life is a right we did not give ourselves but receive, it is right that we cannot take from ourselves. Natural can and does occur. Death due to circumstance, can and does occur, but we are not allowed to take our lives nor are others allowed to take our lives from us.

This great country is against active euthanasia, voluntary euthansia, aid-in-dying, and assisted suicide. For now. As long we call abortion morally right... it still is a matter of time until we extend the same logic to the unwanted elderly population.

As a people who seek to honor God we must continue to pray and actively seek to repeal abortion laws and prevention of euthanasia.

(Obviously I am indebted to Frank Turek and Norman Geisler and their book Legislating Morality).

(Also, before birth (Genesis 25:23, Ecclesiastes 11:5) and old age are times recognized in Scripture (Ecclesiastes 12) and valued by God).