Metropolitan of Tamassou: "Euthanasia is a combination of murder and suicide" (vid)

It is difficult to change the position of the Church of Cyprus regarding euthanasia. The debate opened before the Human Rights Committee with stakeholders seeking a settlement.

Speaking on the show Front Page, the Metropolitan of Tamassos and Orini, Isaias explained that "the position of the Church of Cyprus is always expressed by the representative of the Synod. "Our stance against euthanasia is well known."

Giving the theological dimension of the issue, the Metropolitan said that it is a complex issue. "But for us it is very simple. Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, even though he dies, he lives"… It is clear that the leader of life, the one who creates and manages it, is God himself. For us, that's where the issue ends. "All religions reject euthanasia with the help of medical science and Hippocratic ethics."

He noted that, "the difference between the secular view of life and the spiritual is that we believe in the afterlife. Let no one say that priests are alienated from society and do not live human suffering. The argument is that euthanasia is a redemption, a release from the torment of pain, and so one has the right to rule over one's own death. This is a false argument. "Pain is a process of spiritual purification and entry into the afterlife."

"Man is not a person, he is a person. In modern ethics man is considered an individual, that is why we have deification and absolutization of individual rights. In other words, the individual is autonomous and free to be able to decide on what concerns him. In Theology man is an image of God, he does not live as an autonomous unit but as a relationship with his fellow man and nature. "The concept of the person is based on the freedom determined by his relations with society as a whole," said Metropolitan Tamasou.

Finally, he explained that the discussion about euthanasia takes us back to the first instincts where man did not realize the value of his soul and returned to pagan theories that devalue life. "It is not a dignified death, euthanasia, it is assisted suicide. It is a combination of murder and suicide and not redemption and relief from pain. Priests are very close to man in terms of pain. "The clergy are the ones who call people when they are in pain and suffering to support him."