Euthanasia is defined in the Chamber's English Dictionary as " the act or practice of putting someone painlessly, or as gently as possible, to death". .
There are various forms of Euthanasia, which I must explain before referring to the teachings of the different Christian denominations. The most common of them is Voluntary Euthanasia, where the patient decides for themselves, that they would prefer to be dead. They might decide at the time, or perhaps they might have written a "living will" instructing doctors to kill them if they are ever in a situation where they will never be conscious again. There is also In-voluntary Euthanasia, were someone else decides against the patient's wishes that would be better off dead, and enforces it in the act of killing them. Therefore it is often out-classed as Euthanasia, because it is not "gentle". Non-voluntary Euthanasia takes place in a situation where the patient cannot be asked, or more correctly, cannot answer. This may be because the victim is a baby and can't speak yet, or perhaps the victim is in a coma and is unable to respond to people around him, but in this case a relative or doctor will decide for the person. .
It is also important to distinguish the difference between killing someone (Active), and letting them die (Passive). Killing a person is expressed in an action. An example of this, would be a doctor injecting his patient with a poison. Whereas letting someone die, is expressed in not performing an action. An example of this would be a doctor not supplying his patient with drugs that would save his life, and as a result the patient's life is shortened. .
I will set, discuss, and finally evaluate a debate about Voluntary Euthanasia using contexts from both the Roman Catholic Church, and the Church of England. Some of the key influences I will refer to are Natural Law, Situation Ethics, Doctrine of Double Effect, The Golden Rule, Church documents, and the Bible.
