Verified Document

Moral Philosophy What Moral Compass Research Paper

Review the Feldman reading this week about euthanasia and assisted suicide as well as the online article on Christ's physical death. Many argue that assisted suicide or euthanasia is justified because it relieves a person from suffering. What are your thoughts about euthanasia, given what Christ did for us?

If I had the liberty of being perfectly honest about my own genuine response to the issue, I would have to admit that I still do not understand the conceptual relevance of Christ's suffering to a living person's moral right to spare himself or herself from suffering when the only escape is death. To me, allowing a person to escape intractable pain is much more consistent with the notion of God's love and compassion than requiring a person to endure pain against his or her will.

Christ did not choose to suffer; his suffering was forced upon him by the wrongful and wicked acts of others. For that reason alone, I am unable to understand the logical connection between Christ's suffering and ours or the logical reason that I should have to endure suffering without a purpose for no other reason than the fact that Christ (undoubtedly) suffered horribly. If my suffering had a specific purpose, such as saving another from worse suffering or sparing...

However, where my physical suffering affects only me, particularly in circumstances where my death is inevitable anyway, (such as in the case of advanced cancer or other fatal disease associated with suffering in its later stages), the obligation to endure that suffering seems to me to be inconsistent with the fundamental notions of love and compassion that I associate with God's love.
To my mind, a person has the moral right to decide whether he values continuing to be alive enough to endure tremendous pain. More fundamentally, I would have to admit that I have trouble with the entire concept that everything happens for a reason simply because God's power is unlimited. Regardless of whether or not human intellect is capable of understanding or knowing God's specific motive or purpose in every instance, I do know that there is no conceivable objective that God could not accomplish without causing me pain. In fact, to believe that God has no alternative but to cause me pain to accomplish His objective seems to limit the unlimited power of God. Therefore, I would consider my pain a result of earthly rather than Godly factors and I cannot accept that they would necessarily have any purpose.

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Moral Compass Teaching Morality One
Words: 752 Length: 2 Document Type: Thesis

I believe that one of the strengths of this plan is that it is far different from the moral values that most conservative Christians want to teach, and I think that this is where teaching morality in school has gotten its bad name. Shafersman (1991) discusses a religious right that wants to teach women to be subservient to men and that certain political forms are more godly than others. I

Developing a Moral Compass for Christian Leaders
Words: 3954 Length: 12 Document Type: Essay

A moral compass refers to the attributes that individuals and groups use to guide their lives with a sense of purpose and direction.[footnoteRef:2] Although different faiths subscribe to various types of “moral compass points,” the moral compass advocated by the United Methodist Church provides a useful example that can be used to gain a better understanding concerning its purpose and tenets as well as how these can help improve people’s

Philosophy of Law Given the
Words: 2102 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

He did so, his client was convicted, and now his client is appealing that conviction. In the meantime, there was no way that his client could have given him those details of the other rapes unless he had committed them, so the lawyer knows that he is guilty of the other crimes. Whether the lawyer is concerned about his client and whether he will be prosecuted for the other crimes

Morality Good Virtue Character
Words: 1972 Length: 6 Document Type:

Moral Good and Moral Value Determining moral "good" is a fundamental philosophical study. Only the lazy philosopher would revert to codes of ethics. Ethical standards come from somewhere, and generally those standards can be grouped into three main categories of analysis: consequentialism, deontological ethics, and virtue or character ethics. While these three modes of thinking about the moral good can sometimes interact with one another to create more complex moral analyses,

Philosophy in Defense of Free
Words: 1355 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Buddhists, who similarly believe in the concept of Karma, also have a strong commitment to the belief that their actions have consequences. While Buddhists have a much different value system than Hindus or especially Western religions that tend to see good and bad as black and white, while Buddhists see it as wholesome or unwholesome (Sach 80), they still have a code of morality, such as valuing peace over

Morality Then and Now
Words: 1210 Length: 9 Document Type: Essay

.....versus that of a general more one, it is without a doubt that the different cultures and societies of the world have evolved a great deal over the millennia. The Christians are a good example. The Christians of the Crusades or Christians of the Church of England are far from being the Christians of today. Similarly, the Muslims of the Crusades or the Muslims that have fought for 1,400 years

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now