Answer: yes
Explanation: The euthanasia debate is really the backdrop for a discussion within our society about the very nature of human life and meaning. Because the origin of life is in God, human beings do not have dominion over life but are stewards of life.
The powerful combination of sanctity and stewardship is expressed in the foundational ethical principle. This principle says that no person has the right to directly take innocent human life and in fact there is a positive obligation to nurture and protect life.
In our secular society there is a need to develop a "natural" metaphysic of sacredness. Such a metaphysic can serve as bedrock from which a foundational principle can be developed and then applied in concrete moral norms. It can show that life contributes to the full dignity of the human person. For this perspective to be effective in countering the movement to legalize euthanasia, this sense of integral wholeness of human personhood must be demonstrated in a convincing manner. It can be because a dualistic philosophical bias has been found wanting by Western culture.
We must arrive at what ethicists would call concrete norms that guide individual choices. At issue is how we translate our foundational principle—Do not directly attack innocent human life—into a concrete norm when confronted with the possibility of death.
Some persons question whether the concrete norm opposing euthanasia should be a matter of public morality. To answer this question, we must turn to our foundational principle. As a society, we must ask ourselves, How "sacred" is life? Will that natural sense of awe about life, that natural desire not to be vulnerable, be enhanced or threatened by making euthanasia legal?
Euthanasia has become the ethical issue of the 1990s and the focus of some of our most controversial public policy questions. I oppose the legalization of euthanasia. But we must do more than simply disagree with its proponents. It is possible, using the belief structures of the Judeo-Christian tradition and other reflections, to develop a persuasive understanding of human life that can serve as the foundation for an ethic that would oppose the legalization of euthanasia.
