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Essay On Assisted Suicide

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Daniel Kessler
Professor Brislen
GREL 101
15 November 2014
Religious Views on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Throughout the millennia since the origin of man, technology has continuously evolved contributing to a longer life expectancy among humans. Now, even terminally ill patients can be kept alive by medications and machines. These life saving devices also carry the potential to kill a human with little effort or time. The debate has arisen as to whether people have the “right to die” or often referred to dying with their dignity. The modern dictionary defines the right to die as, “a person 's right to refuse extraordinary life-sustaining measures intended to prolong life artificially when the person is deemed by his or her physicians to be terminally or incurably ill”(right-to-die). As the questions circling these methods of killing grow, religious groups are beginning to take stances on the issue. Two of the largest religions in the world, Buddhism and Hinduism, have denounced the idea of death with dignity but for different reasons. While neither religion is a supporter of the right to die, the rejections are not unanimous for either group. The history and core beliefs of each religion can help one understand why Buddhists and Hindus are against the concept of assisted suicide. Hinduism is the older of the two religions with its origination believed to be around 2500 B.C.E and some think it’s twice as old (V). Within Hinduism, there is no central founder and Hindus

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