Assisted suicide is one form of voluntary euthanasia. Laws proscribing suicide also proscribe assisted suicide. Even though they may sympathize with someone's desire for death, and are willing to help, doctors, friends and relatives hesitate to involve themselves in an act that might land them in jail. As support for assisted suicide mounts, several states have voted on physician-assisted suicide bills. Only one, Oregon, has legalized it so far.
Opinion polls shed light on our hesitancy to accept assisted suicide outright.
Advocates give many reasons for legalizing assisted suicide, but there are many compelling reasons against it. While Christians fully recognize that suicide is an act of desperation, and that people who are suffering intense physical pain and emotional despair must be ministered to with the utmost urgency, we are fully convinced that ethical decisions must not be based on feelings alone. They must be founded upon the eternal principles of God's word. Return to top Killing is forbidden by God Despite the euphemisms used to describe assisted suicide, it still involves killing. The patient does not die from his or her underlying medical condition, but at the hands of those who have the power and knowledge to do so, typically physicians.