1. Unit 4- Religion and Medicine
WJEC- GCSE Religious Studies
Euthanasia
Pages 58-61- Religion & Human
Experience

2. DNA- 10 question recall
Define prejudice What is abortion?
Muslim views on capital
punishment?
What is creationism?
Name two types of
suffering?
Name two religious
leaders?
What is inter-faith
dialouge?
Name the four types of
love?
What is religious clothing? How do we express our
love for God?

3. What you need to know. AO1 and AO2
1. What is euthanasia
2. The different types of euthanasia
3. Who it affects? Where it applies? How it
works?
4. Christian views
5. Muslim views
6. non-religious views

4. Euthanasia (Youth-in-asia)

5. I helped my daughter die

6. What it is not?
• Euthanasia is not suicide but the assisted
ending of someone's life who is suffering.
• Most religions offer teaching on euthanasia
and the end of life.
• Remember that a person's decision to take
their own life is known as 'suicide'.

7. Two principal types of euthanasia
• voluntary euthanasia - the person concerned asks
someone to help them die, perhaps by asking for help
to take an overdose of painkillers
• Involuntary euthanasia - euthanasia is carried out
without the patient’s consent, for example, if they are
in a persistent vegetative state and no longer able to
live without a life support machine, which is then
switched off
• Copy the above definition replacing the words in blue
with another word that means the same thing.
(Synonym)

8. What do they mean?
• voluntary euthanasia
• Involuntary euthanasia
• Make up two sentences using these words.
You can’t use the words in your definition in
these sentences!

9. Case Studies
• Dianne Pretty had motor neurone disease,
and faced a painful death which she wanted
to avoid. She said "I want to have a quick
death without suffering, at home surrounded
by my family."
• She appealed unsuccessfully to the UK courts,
and finally the European Court of Human
Rights, to allow her husband to help her to
die.

10. Case Studies
Tony Bland
• When doctors at Airedale Hospital in Yorkshire asked
the High Court for permission to withdraw artificial
nutrition and hydration from Hillsborough victim Tony
Bland, his family supported the application.
• After the Hillsborough stadium tragedy, Tony was left in
a persistent vegetative state - and hence was not
legally dead. His parents believed their son would not
want to be kept alive in such a condition.
• They petitioned the court to sanction the withdrawal
of hydration and artificial nutrition, which it did.

11. Make your own sketch note out of the above information.

12. Christian attitudes towards euthanasia
Christianity teaches that all life comes from God:
• Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our
likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the
birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and
over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them.
• God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and
increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over
the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every
living creature that moves on the ground.’(Genesis 1:26-28)
• What other units can these quotes apply to?

13. Christian attitudes towards euthanasia
The bible also teaches that life is sacred:
• Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
(1 Corinthians 6:19)
For this reason Christians believe that it would be wrong to
take life:
• You shall not murder.
(Exodus 20:13)
Elsewhere in the Bible it's clear that human beings are not
meant to choose when they die:
• For everything there is a season, and a time for every
matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-4)

14. Task…
• Sort out the arguments for and against
Euthanasia in Christianity

15. Responding to suffering
• The Catholic Church is opposed to euthanasia as
murder. Pope John Paul II said that to cause death in
this way was 'a grave violation of the law of God'.
• However, if large doses of painkillers are used to help
ease a person’s suffering, and as a result of these the
person ultimately dies, this is understood as ‘double
effect’. The intention was not to kill the person, but
to allieviate suffering.
• In the same way the Church does not believe that
doctors should use any ‘extraordinary treatment’ to
keep people alive against the odds.

16. Responding to suffering
• The Church of England holds similar views saying
that "there are very strong arguments that
people should not be kept alive at all costs when
they are suffering intolerable pain”.
• One response from Christianity to the question of
euthanasia has been the creation of hospices.
• These are special places where terminally ill
people are cared for and allowed to die with
dignity without resorting to euthanasia.

18. Muslim attitudes towards euthanasia
• Islam is totally opposed to euthanasia. The Qur’an says
that Allah created all life and everything belongs to
him:
• To Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the
earth. He creates what He pleases.
(Surah 42:50)
• Because of this, Muslim people are forbidden to kill
themselves:
• Destroy not yourselves. Surely Allah is ever merciful to
you.
(Surah 4:29)

19. Click to do a quick test Bite…

20. Recall…
• What do the following terms mean?
• What language are they?
• What topics do they apply to?
1. Sirah
2. Sunnah
3. Hadith

21. Muslim attitudes towards euthanasia
The Prophet Muhammad said that suicides
would go to hell:
• Anyone who throws themselves down from a
rock and commits suicide will be throwing
themselves into Hell. A person who drinks
poison and kills themselves will drink it for
ever in Hell. A person who stabs themselves
will stab themselves for ever in Hell.
(Hadith)

22. Muslim attitudes towards euthanasia
• If people are suffering badly they should ask Allah for help:
• O ye who believe, seek the help of Allah through steadfastness and
Prayer; surely Allah is with the steadfast.... We will surely try you
with somewhat of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and
fruits; then give glad tidings to the steadfast, who, when a
misfortune overtakes them do not lose heart, but say: Surely, to
Allah we belong and to Him we will return.
(Surah 2:153-156)
• No one has the right to decide when they will die: When their
time... arrives they cannot tarry for a single hour nor can they go
ahead.
(Surah 16:61)
• No one can die except by Allah’s leave, that is a decree with a fixed
term.
(Surah 3:145)

23. Rank the following arguments
Plus (arguments that
support euthanasia)
Score Minus (arguments
against euthanasia)
Score Religious (Examples of what
Christians might say)
Score
Total score: Total score: Total score:

24. • Read through the cards and place them from 1-16.
• Once you have finished this, copy and complete a PMR
table, using the cards to help you. Remember, score
each idea between +5 (a really good reason to allow
euthanasia) and -5 (a really good reason to ban
euthanasia).

25. Non- religious arguments in favour
• Suicide is legal, so why not help someone who
cannot commit suicide themselves,
• If animal were suffering, we have it put down
as its the most humane thing to do.
• It is their life they have should have the right
to end it if they want to.
• It’s not fair for the relatives to have to watch
their loved one dying painfully.

26. Non- religious arguments against
• Drugs can be used for pain control.
• Euthanasia is just a fancy word for murder.
• Doctor’s take an oath to save life, it is wrong
to ask them to kill people.
• People can better or medical science might
find a cure for them

29. Arguments for and against euthanasia
• What does this have to do with today’s lesson?

30. Arguments for and against euthanasia
• The slippery slope argument refers to the fear
people have that legalizing euthanasia could lead
to people being killed who didn’t want it. People
might feel pressured to ask for euthanasia or
relatives might pressure family members into it in
order to get their inheritance.
• In your own words, explain what is meant by the
Slippery Slope argument.

31. Revision Task
• Create a one page revision document highlight
the key points about Euthanasia