Although euthanasia is commonly understood to be the epitome of mercy and the logical extension of “death with dignity”, the legalization of euthanasia should be expected to lead to forms of killing which have no necessary connection with either mercy or dignity.
For most people Hippocrates is a shadowy figure somehow connected to the ethical practice of medicine; they feel vaguely comforted by the supposed fact that doctors take a Hippocratic Oath of practice upon graduation.
You must not impose your views on your patients. Of course not, we all agree. So you must practice medicine from a non-judgmental, morally neutral stance.
Human societies need the general acceptance of the rule of law if they are to function, and that acceptance has to be deeply rooted if they are to flourish. The law easily defines what we will not tolerate.
God wants us to remember the past in order to celebrate the good and learn to avoid evil. Equally recurrently, the children of Israel forgot to remember and the consequences were usually severe, including exile and slavery.
We are all religious. We all have faith commitments whether we are Jews, Christians, Muslims or Secularists to take only the dominant approaches in the western world.
I carry with me a little pocket book of quotations I have collected over the years. This little book provides me with apparently innocent opening gambits in the game of trying to defend the place of faith in the practice of medicine. Of course, I not only want to defend but also to enlarge the Kingdom.