Bioethics

Last night on Three Rivers, the show dealt with the difficult topic of euthanasia.  While they did portray viewpoints on both sides of the topic in the episode, the not very surprising conclusion showed the patient riding off joyfully, through the cloud of grateful potential donor recipients and families, into the operating room sunset.   By the end of the show, everyone who had any objection at all was fully supportive of the patient's decision to end his life.   Even the TV audience was drawn into this through the effective use of sentimentality and utilitarian ideals.  It was not hard to garner sympathy for the plight of the patient, and to bring focus to all the good that would result from the person giving up his organs to those who needed them.  

While the challenges faced by the patient making the decision should not be ignored or minimized (e.g. quality of life, costs, etc); neither should the moral aspects.   No matter how much "good" can come out of it and no matter how much the "good" may outweigh the "bad"; ultimately, the ends should NOT justify the means.   Morally, taking away life, is still wrong.  Also "quality of life" is not enough of an argument to justify the taking of life either.   Otherwise, how would one determine at what point quality of life is bad enough to make it okay to end life, which would lead to the slippery slope of saying that suicide at other points in a person's life may be okay as long as they really wanted to die and preferred it over living.  This would lead to the difficulty of determing when suicide would ever be wrong.    Without moral absolutes, these troubling grey areas arise.   But, with moral absolutes, we recognize that life is precious and is to be protected, each person being a reflection of the Creator.  Also, while we desire to alleviate the pain the patient is enduring, from  the moral standpoint, are they ensured that the pain they are experiencing in this life is not more than the suffering to be encountered after this life ends?  To answer this question, there would need to be that clear worldview, which also forms the basis for morality.