Playing God: A Role That Should Not Be Assigned All humans will die. Approximately 2,155,000 people from the United States will die in one year. In the United States, during the year 1989, 34% of all deaths were caused by heart disease, 23% by cancer, 6% by stroke, and 2.2% by accidents involving motor vehicles. In the same year, 5.5% of deaths were caused by medical negligence and suicide (main causes). This does not take into account the number of people killed by assisted suicide and euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is described as the intentional withdrawal by the patient's doctor of a vital treatment that could prolong the person's life. Assisted suicide occurs when a healthcare provider provides a patient with tools and/or medications that will help them kill themselves, without the healthcare provider's direct intervention. Active euthanasia occurs when the doctor is responsible for killing the patient; for example, when the doctor administers a lethal injection (Schofield, 25). Active euthanasia is illegal in the United States. Only three states have legalized assisted suicide, and only Oregon allows physician-assisted suicide. Thirty-five states, including Colorado, have statutes criminalizing assisted suicide, and nine states criminalize assisted suicide through common law (assisted suicide laws). In addition to active and passive euthanasia, there are three other categories of euthanasia: voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary, there is written or spoken consent from the patient; involuntary, the patient cannot express his opinion due to unconsciousness or coma; and involuntary, which goes against the patient's will and constitutes homicide (Schofield, 26). Assisted suicide and euthanasia, in any form, are murder. «Man is the administrator, not the owner, of the life that God has entrusted to him» (Vatican, 550). To decide whether euthanasia is wrong we must first decide whose life belongs to. The Bible says, “In the hand of God is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10). Life belongs to God and since God gave life to the human race, God should decide when it is time to take life. Furthermore, the fifth commandment says: "Thou shalt not kill." Assisted suicide and euthanasia disobey this commandment. Proponents of euthanasia argue that the First Amendment "prohibits the establishment of religion" and therefore life cannot be said to belong to God. However, in Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that "the citizens of a democracy can vote to deny individual rights, even if that vote is ultimately based on nothing other than religious faith" (Bowden).