Issues: The Sanctity of Life

Sanctity means 'the quality of being sacred or holy.'

Christians often talk of human life as being sacred. They refer to the sanctity of life when considering issues such as abortion, euthanasia, embryo research, the care of disabled or the elderly.

They believe there is something special or holy about human life. Every human, Christians believe, is special to God.

In The Bible, Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 God is described as creating the first humans. The Bible says, ' So God created people in his own image;God patterned them after himself;male and female he created them.'

Humans are the only part of God's creation described as being in the image of God. Christians don't believe we look like God. They believe being in the image of God means that we are somehow special, we have something of God's nature in us - or at least the capacity to show God's nature.

Christians believe that God created every human to be unique. There is a beautiful passage in the The Bible, Psalm chapter 139 verses 13-16 where it describes a very caring God intimately creating us in our mother's womb: 'You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - and how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. ... Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.'

Christians believe all human life is sacred because:

1. God is the giver of life. The Bible, Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 1-3 says 'There is a time for everything. A time to be born and a time to die ...' Christians believe God gives and takes away life as he pleases.
2. Christians believe God created human life and it should be preserved. Nothing is more important than the life God has given.
3. Every life has a purpose. God destined (or meant) for each of us to be born (Psalm chapter 139 verses 13-16). He took care when creating us. All life is important and shouldn't be wasted.
4. God decides when life begins and ends. Murder is forbidden in the 10 Commandments (Exodus chapter 20 verse 13). It is not acceptable to take away a life God has created ... It isn't acceptable to kill someone else and taking your own life is not considered a good thing.

The belief that Christians have in the sanctity of life often leads Christians to oppose euthanasia . They believe to deliberately end a life, even one of a terminally ill patient, is destroying a life God has made. Abortion, equally, many Christians see as destroying something God is making inside the mother. The belief in the sanctity of life makes it hard for a Christian to control the beginning or end of life. That, Christians believe is the responsibility of God.