What is the Christian answer to giving morphine to a patient?

Answer 1

Shorter Answer

A patient that is in pain should be relieved of that pain. Even Christ was given a pain killer as he hung on the cross.

Longer Answer

Christians undoubtedly have varying views about giving morphine to a patient. On one hand, morphine relieves severe pain that other medications might not have any effect on. On the other hand, the end result of taking morphine in doses that relieve severe pain can be an earlier death. Morphine is also highly addictive, so if a patient should recover, they would very likely have to be weaned off morphine gradually.

Those are all issues that anyone, not only Christians, would have to consider when deciding their views about giving morphine to patients, and there are no easy, cut-and-dried answer. It's something each individual has to decide for him or her self, and whatever one believes, when faced with a situation where he or she is the one who is in severe pain or has a loved one who is, views could change drastically.

Biblical references that might apply to this question are:

Matthew: "Vinegar mingled with gall" (xxvii, 34).

Mark: "Wine mingled with myrrh" (xv, 23).

Luke: "Vinegar" alone (xxiii, 36).

The draughts mentioned by Matthew and Mark refer to a Jewish mixture intended to produce stupefaction and lessen pain.

Proverbs 31:6-9

Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

The substance "strong drink" (whatever it is) maybe similar to morphine or may be different, but the intention is the same.