What is the value of a human life? Is it so meaningless that it can be terminated without consent? Some people believe so. In Prolife News Canada, Ian Kluge, a teacher of English and Comparative Civilizations in British Columbia, notes, "this argument is a direct descendant of the Nazi concept of 'Lebenunwertes Leben'--life unworthy of life. According to this Nazi philosophy, certain people have 'a right' to die and, if they cannot make the choice themselves, the state and its appointed boards of experts may have to exercise this right for them (Hentoff, 1998).".
Here in America, do we want to mimic such barbaric behavior? Should we empower our own government and/or its board certified physicians to make such personal permanent decisions for Americans? The reasons will be delineated throughout this paper as to why we answer, "no". From a medical perspective euthanasia is wrong because it directly violates the Hippocratic Oath that defines the profession. Now let's look at the physicians to see if they are justified or not in what they do. Are the physicians justified in what they perform? This is a tough question and there are many opinions that we will discuss further in this paper. However, death is not a pragmatic issue, and predetermining our own time of death is not our choice. Once it is performed, that is the end. When a person takes his or her own lives with or without someone's help it is suicide and morally suicide is wrong both socially and biblically.
For doctors to perform euthanasia, means that they are going against The Oath of Hippocrates which all doctors are required to take. Hippocrates was an early and very influential Greek physician of about the Fifth Century BC. His writings not only had a great impact on the content of Greek medical thought, but also on the ethics of medical practice. This oath says: "I swear by Apollo the physician, Aesculapius, Health, All-heal and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents" (Hippocrates, 400 BC).
