d O'Rourke 417).
The Judeo-Christian position traditionally has been against euthanasia. This position holds true with respect to both active and passive forms of euthanasia. The claim of that tradition is that "euthanasia without the consent of the patient is equated with murder and with consent of the patient is both suicide and murder" (Ashley and O'Rourke 417). The reader sees, then, that from this perspective, the consent of the patient produces an act which is even morally worse than euthanasia without the patient's consent.
The execution of euthanasia without the patient's consent involves a tremendous leap in order to assume that the euthanasiaists know what the patient wants or does not want. It also assumes that the patient is not undergoing an experience which is a necessity for spiritual growth. The assumption is that the patient wants one thing in life, and that is relief from suffering. But what if the patient, as he moves closer to death perhaps, is undergoing a tremendous spiritual transformation, and that transformation is curtailed by the unwant
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