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Respected Opinion
Professor Jacques Pohier's discussion of assisted dying from a Catholic viewpoint in support of Voluntary Euthanasia makes for fascinating reading (5 pages, PDF). Get a copy of Life Stances and Choice in Dying: A Catholic Viewpoint in Favour of Voluntary Euthanasia and of Assisted Suicide here...
"Death is not the end of everything, so I am not so concerned about an endless prolongation of my life—certainly not under conditions that are no longer compatible with human dignity."
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"Many Christians feel God is not honoured by a person (made in the 'image' of God) abdicating her autonomy and freedom of will and passively submitting to 'fate'."
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"There is nothing faithful about relinquishing responsibility."
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"Few would now accept the view that one range of actions belongs wholly to the sphere of human free will and another wholly to God. God does not lay exclusive claims to decisions about ending one's life."
Bible Facts & Theological Interpretation
You may sometimes hear a religious figure say that voluntary euthanasia contravenes the sanctity of life. However, as Rev. Trevor Bensch, co-founder of Christians supporting choice for Voluntary Euthanasia, points out, the term 'sanctity of life' appears nowhere in the bible. Interpreting selected passages of the bible to mean so is a personal matter for the individual. It's a human construction. One could equally interpret other passages of the bible to authorise or justify selling daughters into slavery or putting whole peoples to the sword. Voluntary euthanasia does not require anyone to choose it and anyone is free to avoid assisted dying if it offends their personal beliefs and values.
Theological support for voluntary euthanasia
Excerpt of a paper by the Rev. Dr. Andrew Dutney published in the Monash Bioethics Review Vol. 16 No. 2 dated April 1997.
Even among the "experts" and "authorities" there is a diversity of opinion. Catholicism has an official position of unqualified opposition to any form of euthanasia. According to the catechism, "Intentional euthanasia, whatever its form or motives, is murder. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and the respect due to the living God, his (sic) Creator". But there are Catholic voices expressing disagreement with that position.
The Australian philosopher, Max Charlesworth, is one. He takes a position which has been characteristic of Christian supporters of voluntary euthanasia, affirming that God has created human beings to make their own decisions and to accept responsibility for themselves and their neighbours. There is nothing faithful about relinquishing that responsibility in the face of the power of nature or history. "It's not 'playing God' to seek freely to control the direction of my life," Charlesworth writes, "and it's not 'playing God' to seek freely to control the mode of my dying. For a Christian, God is not honoured by a person (made in the 'image' of God) abdicating her autonomy and freedom of will and passively submitting to 'fate'."
Hans Küng, a well-known Catholic theologian, has taken a similar position. In his view, "God, who has given men and women freedom and responsibility for their lives, has also left to dying people the responsibility for making a conscientious decision about the manner and time of their deaths. This is a responsibity which neither the state, nor the church, neither a theologian, nor a doctor can take away". For Küng, "precisely because I am convinced that death is not the end of everything, I am not so concerned about an endless prolongation of my life—certainly not under conditions that are no longer compatible with human dignity".
Similar views have been expressed by Protestant Christians. Kenneth Ralph, a Uniting Church Minister, has argued that "self-determination is central to what it means to be a human being, or a person", and resists the arbitrary removal of the responsibility of self-determination in the manner of one's death. His views summarise a characteristic emphasis in the doctrine of the human person as it has been stated in the twentieth century western theology. The paramount value of the person is given by God and was central to the ministry and teachings of Jesus. The interests of the individual therefore have priority over any social, political, or religious project to which he or she might be conscripted. In particular, there is no religious value in requiring extreme and hopeless suffering of individuals against their will, subsuming their "good" to the "good of society" or the "common good". Indeed, such use of persons defaces the "image of God" in them and is to that extend irreligious.
John Cobb, a Methodist theologian, has made a similar point in a more careful way. He maintains that "Theologically, few would now accept the view that one range of actions belongs wholly to the sphere of human free will and another wholly to God. God is at work everywhere, but in a way that does not set aside the decisions of the creatures. Instead God makes such decisions possible and works in and through them". It is his contention that God does not lay exclusive claims to decisions about ending one's life. It is not a special case. In this, as in all things, we may find ourselves having to be in partnership with God.