A broad majority of Americans, 72%, continue to believe that doctors should be legally allowed, at a patient's and a family's request, to end a terminally ill patient's life using painless means. While support for legalized euthanasia is strong across nearly all subgroups of Americans, men, young adults, Democrats and liberals are especially likely to favor it. Support drops below a majority only among weekly congregants.

Those who object to euthanasia are the devout Christians and Jews. Killing an innocent is a crime against the 6th commandment, “Thou shalt not murder." This commandment forbids the killing of the innocent, not the killing of the guilty, which can be sometimes ordered by the state for the common good. This is clear in the Hebrew Bible where Moses also gave laws to kill the guilty, and in the doctrine of the Catholic and protestant churches. Euthanasia is a crime against the same commandment, just as is abortion. Both are murder.

Several people have told me about deaths in their family and what has happened with hospital employees and Hospice care. My mother's experience was in an Alzheimer's nursing home. Their stories have become more common with Obama Care.

The American physician's original Hippocratic Oath is bizarre inasmuch as the oaths are to false gods. (Russian and Islamic physicians take different oaths.)

The Original Oath of Hippocrates

"I SWEAR by Apollo the physician and Asclepius, (the Greek god of medicine and healing) and Hygieia, (daughter of the god of medicine, Asclepius, and the goddess/personification of health) and Panaceia, (another daughter and goddess of Universal remedy) and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment, this Oath and this covenant. To hold him who has taught me this Art as equal to me as my parents, and to live my life in partnership, and if he is in need of money, to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brother in male lineage and to teach them this art, if they desire to learn it, without fee and covenant, to give a share of the precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but to no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick, according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly, I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness, I will guard my life and my Art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work. Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all internal injustice, of all mischief, and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves. What I may see or hear, in the course of treatment or even outside the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about. If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite be my lot."

Obviously, one does not have to swear allegiance to a Greek polytheistic deity, but swearing the oath to a personal God is a tie that binds. The rest of the oath is pretty clear. Of special import is the portion I highlighted. Sadly today, our medical personnel have decided to speed death along rather than giving aid and comfort to the sick and suffering. They've become the "god" who decides life and death. This practice on the sick and elderly accelerated during Covid where no true aid and comfort was given and the elderly and disabled died.

For nearly 50 years we allowed the murder of the most innocent, America's unborn babies. When I wrote the article, THE CULTURE OF DEATH, I said I would write another article regarding after-birth abortion proponents and their plans. I couldn't bring myself to face the research I'd collected to write that article. The truth of our death culture is often more than I can bear, especially the unborn. The elderly in our country have been the targets for decades as well. Instead of being cherished and honored, they are being treated as "useless eaters" that should quickly die. We need to know what to expect, what to alert our loved ones to watch for, and what to tell them we want at the end of our lives.

In 1993, Dr. Reed Bell wrote the book, Prescription Death: Compassionate Killers in the Medical Profession. He discussed the changes that had taken place in European countries over the previous 25 years. These changes are now happening in America at an exponential speed. Our culture has changed from a basic Judeo-Christian ethos and ethic to the prevailing secular humanist characteristics and philosophies. We have moved from sanctity-of-life to "quality-of-life.”. Since 1973, we have accepted the right of women to kill their unborn babies for any reason at all because it's a woman's "right to choose," and now, with Obama Care, we are moving rapidly to condoning suicide and the "right-to-die."

One of the most frightening aspects of the euthanasia movement is called Crypthanasia, (active euthanasia on sick people without their knowledge). A typical case might be an older person who has suffered a heart attack and is in the emergency room. His problem could be ameliorated with a pace maker, but because of his age and the cost of care, he is denied treatment and is allowed to die, or even assisted in dying by a physician who has decided he is not worth saving. This is done without the patient's or his family's knowledge or consent.

The Judeo-Christian ethic has moved to a quality-of-life ethic and eventually moves to a "compassionate killing" of patients and the "duty-to-die." Once we've accepted the notion there is a "right-to-die," it doesn't take much rationalizing to accept the idea that there may also be a "duty-to-die" and that our medical profession has an obligation to help people along in the dying process, even against their will.

Conclusion

The Manufacturer's Handbook is clear throughout both the Old and New Testaments.

Only the Lord Himself has the right to choose when our lives on earth come to an end. Human beings are unique beings made "in the image of God" (Gen 1:26-28). "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13). "CHOOSE LIFE" (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Life is a gift from God and the moment of death is God's prerogative. "Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; " (Job 14:5).

"To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted" (Eccl 3:1-2).

Sickness or injury at the end of life can cause suffering that can be trying on the family as well. Yet, again, God says, "Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer ... Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Rev 2:10).

God can heal even the hopeless cases. “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.” Jeremiah 17:14