I was reading an article on Yahoo news about a recent televised suicide of a Chicago man in Switzerland. The article aims to call attention to the fact that these ‘mercy killings’ or ‘assisted suicide’ might be conducted more for financial gain than for the purpose of ending a life with dignity.

I really didn’t think much about the whole article until I read one line that stated, “A small religious party is campaigning to ban groups from charging for their services…”

Now the article didn’t state which ‘small religious group’ this was, and I of course, am making a leap here when I assume it would be a Christian-based belief system. But whether Christian-based or not, I have a problem with this statement and a few others in regards to killings, assisted suicides, and death penalties.

If I remember my Bible correctly, Exodus 20:13 (KJV) states: “Thou shalt not kill.” Which is one of the Ten Commandments given to Moses, and is supposed to be upheld by any religious belief system that adheres to the teaching of the Old Testament.

The problem I have with the current moral judgments of people under the guises of their religious beliefs is that they seem to be situational ethicists or situational moralists. Meaning, it depends upon the situation as to whether killing is acceptable or not.

I don’t remember the tablets saying, “Thou shalt not kill, except….”

The fact that the Yahoo article points out that a small religious party would find the services acceptable as long as there was not a charge, goes a little against the grain with me! I’m not making a moral judgment on whether assisted suicide or mercy killings are acceptable or not, what is irking me is that a group of allegedly ‘Godly’ belief systems would even think that killing is acceptable as long as there was no financial gain.

Does this imply that poverty equals piety? And does the fact that money is removed from the transaction make it more palatable?

Many years ago on my spiritual path I had to resolve an inner conflict with the fact that as a seeker of the truth, how could I justify the death of another in any given situation. How could I say that murder was wrong but yet justify the murder of the criminal by use of the death penalty? Murder is murder. Killing is killing. There’s no gray area here.

My truth became just that. Murder, killing, or being the cause of death to another living being was unjustifiable. I chose to no longer support the death penalty. I chose to catch and release insects rather than kill them in our home.

Now, I want to point out that I am human and there are some exceptions that I have to make in order to live peacefully within my home. Unfortunately for field mice, there’s no humane way for me to catch and release them. So, I do, when forced to, use a circular trap that causes a humane instant death rather than wait for our cat to give it a slow and agonizing death. And while this may sound totally corny to you, I do feel terrible for having to do so and apologize to mother earth, God, and the mouse for having to kill it.

I don’t know where I stand personally on the subject of taking your own life in order to die with dignity. This is something I will have to meditate on further now that it’s been called to my attention.

Having been raised Catholic originally; I was always taught that only God has the right to take a life. But I know now through my spiritual walk that God doesn’t kill people, although through our lack of understanding death we attribute it to the Divine. And I say this as ‘my truth‘ and not to imply that you should believe the way I do. You need to decide your truth for yourself.

So, I propose the question to you, fellow seeker, when is murder or killing another – or yourself – acceptable to you and why?

To read the article that posed the question to me and prompted this writing see:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081214/ap_on_re_eu/eu_switzerland_dying_with_dignitas

Tags: assisted suicide, be situational ethicists, catholic, Christian, Christianity, death, death penalty, dignity, killing, moral, moralist, morality, murder, suicide, Switzerland