Death, Solitude, and Euthanasia

 Perhaps the most frightening aspect of death is the solitude with which we must face it. We face it alone. Martin Luther said, "No man can die in another's place; each must personally fight his own battle against death. No matter how hard we cry out to those around us, each one of us must face it alone." But this is no longer entirely true. "If we have died with him, we will also live with him" (2 Tim 2:11). It is possible to die with someone!

This demonstrates the gravity of the problem euthanasia presents from the Christian point of view. Euthanasia deprives human death of its link to Christ's death. It strips it of its paschal nature, changing it back to what it was befor eChrist. Death is deprived of its majectic awesomeness and becomes a human determination, a decision of finite freesom. It is literally "profaned"—that is, deprived of its sacredness.

Raniero Cantalamessa, The Power of the Cross

This brings euthanasia into a sharp focus for me, reveals its "wrongness" afresh.