This document outlines a Christian perspective on Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders. It discusses that:
1) Humans are created in God's image and thus all human life has inherent worth and dignity regardless of physical or mental condition. Physicians should focus on providing comfort over simply accepting a request to not be resuscitated.
2) As beings created by God, humans belong to God alone. Physicians should not play God by ending a life or assisting in suicide if requested by a patient, but rather make every effort to preserve life.
3) As social beings, individual decisions like a DNR order will impact families and loved ones. Physicians' role is to alleviate unnecessary suffering
This document outlines a Christian perspective on Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders. It discusses that:
1) Humans are created in God's image and thus all human life has inherent worth and dignity regardless of physical or mental condition. Physicians should focus on providing comfort over simply accepting a request to not be resuscitated.
2) As beings created by God, humans belong to God alone. Physicians should not play God by ending a life or assisting in suicide if requested by a patient, but rather make every effort to preserve life.
3) As social beings, individual decisions like a DNR order will impact families and loved ones. Physicians' role is to alleviate unnecessary suffering
This document outlines a Christian perspective on Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders. It discusses that:
1) Humans are created in God's image and thus all human life has inherent worth and dignity regardless of physical or mental condition. Physicians should focus on providing comfort over simply accepting a request to not be resuscitated.
2) As beings created by God, humans belong to God alone. Physicians should not play God by ending a life or assisting in suicide if requested by a patient, but rather make every effort to preserve life.
3) As social beings, individual decisions like a DNR order will impact families and loved ones. Physicians' role is to alleviate unnecessary suffering
This document outlines a Christian perspective on Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders. It discusses that:
1) Humans are created in God's image and thus all human life has inherent worth and dignity regardless of physical or mental condition. Physicians should focus on providing comfort over simply accepting a request to not be resuscitated.
2) As beings created by God, humans belong to God alone. Physicians should not play God by ending a life or assisting in suicide if requested by a patient, but rather make every effort to preserve life.
3) As social beings, individual decisions like a DNR order will impact families and loved ones. Physicians' role is to alleviate unnecessary suffering
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CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE OF DNR
1. HUMANS ARE CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27) Humans, both male and female, are made in the image of God. One of the results of this fact is that every single life is highly valuable because being human is the same as being the reflection of God itself. It is so valuable that taking life of another human being is not permissible even though it is possible. As Gods image, human deserves a range of responses: wonder, respect, empathy, and above all protection from abuse, from harm, from manipulation, and from willful neglect. One of the best way to value patients as a person is to give them the best care and make their life as comfortable and fulfilling as possible. This is better than to simply accepting their request of not wanting to be resuscitated when they do need it. Every patient, no matter their condition, whether they are in a mental state, vegetable state, in so much pain, or whether they are in a deformed body, it does not decrease their valuability. They still possess the divine value. 2. HUMANS BELONG TO GOD Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are Gods. (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
Humans are created by the Lord, and thus belong to Him. We
as physicians have no right to play God by giving up on anothers life or assist in its suicide, even if it were to be requested by the patient themselves. God alone has the sovereignty over our life and death (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6) and we as physicians should give our best efforts to care and to preserve their life. Even though we belong to God, God gave humans the freedom to choose. Autonomy is fine as long as it still is in accordance to Gods will and reflects His image within us. 3. HUMANS AS SOCIAL BEINGS Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2:18)
All individual human life is special and humans are part of a
family. Humans are created as social beings. And whatever decision the individual makes, including in DNR order, there will always be, whether direct or indirect consequence to the people around the patient. 4. PAIN Like we have mentioned it above, human life is highly valuable, and there is a strict line drawn between removing suffering and removing the sufferer. Euthanasia and DNR is more likely to remove the sufferer rather than the suffering. Taking the life of a human desecrates Gods image and no human shall kill (Exodus 20:13). Pain and suffering, are the consequences of mans rebellion against God the creator. Suffering can be used by God as a tool to reach out to us, His creations, to remind us to turn back to Him and to know His greatness and power.
As CS Lewis wrote: The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender selfwill as long as all seems well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakeable evil; every man knows something is wrong when he is being hurt.... Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Christianity teaches us to value human beings because of who they are, because of how they have been made, because they are known by God and immensely valued by him, rather than on the basis of what they can do. Physicians cannot eliminate all suffering and death but must always try to eliminate unnecessary suffering and untimately death. Quoting Wyatt: The essence of being a good doctor is to know when enough is enough. But how do we know when we should withdraw treatment, or withhold it? It is when the burdens of any particular medical treatment outweigh its benefits.... There is, however, a fundamental difference between making treatment decisions, and making value-of-life decisions. Doctors are qualified to make treatment decisions: to decide which treatment is worthwhile and which is not. But doctors are no better qualified than anybody else to make value-oflife decisions: to decide which life is worthwhile and which is not. Doctors may determine whether a treatment is futile, but they can never determine whether a life is futile. When
we withdraw or withhold treatment, we are expressing a
belief that the treatment is valueless, not that the patient is valueless.
5. DEATH In the Christian belief, death is never the end, it is a phase of transition, from this world into eternity. It also marks the end of our contract with God, in regards to all that He has entrusted to us; our time, family, talents, strengths, and relationships. Thus death marks not the end of all, but at the same time, vanquishes us of any possibility whatsoever to manage what God has entrusted to us, thus though we do not fear death as Christians, we do see it as an impending timeout, and imminent deadline to accomplish His task for us in this life.
