Ethics in Perspective: Politics, Humanism, and Christian Morality

Modern discourse has pushed aside the topic of ethics for more important (albeit short term) issues like war and the economy. What is so vexing about the absence of ethics in discussion is that it is integral to every single decision made, whether at the international level or the individual level. This encompassing reality makes it necessary for all to create a scale of appropriate action, ranging from the most appropriate of actions to the least appropriate. This scale is both because of and in aid of the short, transient nature of human life; there is no possible way to ponder all of the actions for every conceivable contingency. I contend that there must be one absolutely correct way to do things and one absolutely wrong way to do things, with an almost infinite amount of other options in the middle. Ethics are values that achieve ends that do not solely justify the means, but require means that are appropriate and congruent with what is appropriate for the actor and appropriate to the acted upon.

I will apply my contention, along with three other views of ethics, to a current issue that can be remedied theoretically by the three views. The topic for which I will apply the burden of these ideas is that of euthanasia, or mercy killing. This topic is applicable because it tests the limitations of the views presented in this paper. I will, however, prove that my contention is the only one that leaves no doubt as to what is the ethical course of action in dealing with euthanasia.

Definitions of Life and Euthanasia

In order to clarify the issue at hand, there needs to be two definitions allowed. The first definition is of what life is. There are many different conceptions of when life begins, what life consists of, and when life ends. The Christian conception of what life is seems to be that life begins at the conception of the fetus, which disallows abortions because it is deemed murder. Life is spent in the pursuit of knowing God and living a life of faith and good action. Life ends physically when body functions stop totally and the spirit or soul makes travel to the afterlife, heaven or hell.