Attitudes to Euthanasia in the

The prohibition on taking human life is one of the cornerstones of Buddhist ethics, but there is often confusion about the interpretation of this prohibition in different contexts. In his commentary on the third pàràjika in the Samantapàsàdikà, Buddhaghosa sets out to clarify the legal provisions of the monastic precept against taking life. The root text and his comments on it are relevant to the contemporary debate on euthanasia, and this paper considers what light Buddhist jurisprudence can shed on this moral dilemma. The third pàràjika is one of the four most serious monastic offences that can be committed by a monk, and breaking any one of them is punished by lifelong expulsion from the monastic community. The four pàràjika offences are: (1) Sexual intercourse (2) Stealing (3) Taking life (4) Falsely laying claim to superhuman powers. These four precepts are essentially a reformulation of what might be called the four Òcore moral preceptsÓ of Buddhism. Usually they are found Journal of Buddhist Ethics 6 (1999):260-270