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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.

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