Euthanasia?

I hear your question, and i can feel with you. It is awful to watch someone suffer, and when you know that the person is going to eventually die anyway, and they're asking you to put an end to it now, i can see how it is tempting to comply with their wishes. If i weren't a religious person, I might even be tempted to respond 'Why not put an end to it? What is the point of letting the person live a little while longer, just to prolong their suffering?" But my religion teaches that ending someone's life, even under such circumstances, is murder. My religion teaches that there is a purpose to such suffering. Perhaps the person has sinned in his/her lifetime, and G-d is giving the punishment now during his lifetime, rather than giving the punishment in the Afterlife, where suffering is much worse. By allowing the person to suffer BEFORE they die, rather than after, G-d is actually doing the person a favor. This is all very deep and complicated. The thing to remember is that G-d's wisdom and knowledge far surpasses ours. G-d knows what he's doing, and it's not for us to interfere. As a nurse, it is your job to just make the patient as comfortable as you can-that is if there is no cure. While you may not 'mercy kill', you should neither say "Obviously G-d wants him to suffer-that is what is best for him-so let him suffer." Your job as a nurse is to make the patient comfortable. You do your job and G-d does His.

It is funny that this post should come up now. I am taking a class at Ashford University on health care ethics and professional law and this is our topic of the week. I have to do a little research on this for my class but as of right now I am against euthanasia. There have been cases where a person is a vegetable a long time and recovers from the comatose state years later to go on to a happy and healthy life. What if the person gives up and requests euthanasia but could have healed. This is indeed an ethical issue that needs addressed.