The "Euthanasia" Myth

By Dr. John E. Russell

The word euthanasia is a transliteration of a compound Greek word eu "well" + thanatos "death" which means "dying well." Euthanasia or "Mercy Killing" as it is commonly called can be either passive or active. Active euthanasia is murder. Passive euthanasia involves allowing someone to die.

When King Saul was critically wounded in his final battle, he asked his armor-bearer to kill him. When the armor-bearer would not, King Saul fell on his own sword and killed himself. A young Amalekite runner brought the news to David and took credit for killing King Saul. The runner thought that this would place him in good stead with David. However, David had the runner executed, and declared a time of mourning for King Saul. (1 Samuel 31 and 2 Samuel 1). So much for active euthanasia in the Old Testament!

When Jesus was approached by someone needing healing, he never said, "Kill this man—he's terminal!" Neither did he say, "Withhold food and water and all extraordinary means and let him die!" Neither did he substitute the "Death with Dignity" euphemism for murder. Just what did Jesus do? He simply healed the person! There is no record in the New Testament that Jesus ever rejected anyone for healing who asked.

A phrase used by the United States death movement is "death with dignity." It was probably used first in a book published in Germany in 1920 by Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche, entitled, The Release of the Destruction of Life Devoid of Value. In Germany, first came the euthanasia movement, followed by the genocide movement. (Francis A. Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop, M.D., Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, p. 90).

Passive euthanasia is deliberately allowing someone to die without taking action to save that person's life. If one is perceived as being "terminally ill," family and doctor may want to withhold extraordinary means in order not to "delay the death process." How does one define "terminally ill?" Some say that occurs when the EEG goes flat. But I know an Army Chaplain whose son was in an accident where there was no perceptible brainwave-then it returned!

Everyone is "terminally ill." Everyone goes through a process of developing, then degeneration—a process of dying. What is "extraordinary means?" In the past, it was first defined as intravenous fluids and oxygen. Then, it became defined as "respirators, pacemakers and heart-lung machines." Then it became defined as surgery for newborns with severe birth defects. (Schaeffer and Koop, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, pp. 90-91).

Active euthanasia is the deliberate taking of human life. The Hemlock Society, established by Derek Humphry in 1980, pushed for the taking of human life. [Derek Humphry, Final Exit: The Practicalities Of Self-Deliverance And Assisted Suicide For The Dying (Eugene, OR: Hemlock Society, 1991)]. Humphry's book is a manual on how to commit suicide.

"Suicide is the beginning, not the end!" insists the late Pastor E. V. Hill and he is right!

The retired pathological pathologist, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, assisted his "patients" to commit suicide. Later, he was sentenced to prison. Other leaders in the death movement are immoral and may be breaking laws.

History shows clearly the frighteningly short steps from "the living will" to "death control" to "thought control" and finally to the systematic elimination of all but those selected for slavery or to make up the master race. (Schaeffer and Koop, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, p. 57).

Important Note: For a comprehensive treatment of euthanasia, see the following resource: Rita Marker, Deadly Compassion. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1993.

It comes down to the simple choice of life or death: Choose God. Choose Life.

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