How far should you go in promoting and defending life?

Answer 1

AnswerIn promoting and defending life, you should remain within the law and inside the limits within which you are not seeking to impose your beliefs on others.

Since this question is asked in a Religion and Spirituality category, I will assume that the question was likely to have been about one or both of euthenasia and abortion. Euthenasia and abortion are both sensitive issues on which many people hold strong positions both for and against, although support for one does not necessarily imply support for the other; similarly opposition to one does not necessarily imply opposition to the other.

In most countries, the law provides some level of support for those wishing to obtain an abortion in various circumstances. It does not support any form of violence or intimidation to discourage or prevent an abortion. And surely The Bible tells us enough about the sins that been committed by others in attempting to discourage or prevent an abortion, not to go down that path. There is a remedy if you disagree with abortion, and that is to seek peacefully the proper use of existing laws or the proclamation of new laws for or against abortion. By remaining wholly within the spirit and meaning of the law and of biblical teachings, you will not have stained your own soul.

In most countries, the law provides little support for those wishing to die rather than suffer intolerable and incurable pain until an inevitable death. But it is up to the civil authorities whether to take any action to prevent that person killing himself or herself, assisted or otherwise. Th role of the individual is limited to passing any information on to the authorities and to advocating the liberalisation or tightening of what laws do exist.

In moral and ethical issues, it is perfectly permissible in most circumstances for an individual to seek amendments to a law that actually affects the lives of others, as the democratic process will hopefully establish and support the will of the majority. What is not acceptable is to seek merely to impose one's own views on others, without the benefit of that democratic process. Doing so simply leads us down the path already travelled by al Qaeda and others. It is not possible to say, "I only want to go down that path just a little way," or "I only want to follow them on issues I personally agree with." You either follow al Qaeda or you don't.