Euthanasia and the Right to Die

Flashcards on the ethics of euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and the right to die, covering arguments for and against, Kantian perspectives, and the impact of societal perceptions.

Euthanasia

A death that is intended to benefit the person who dies, and requires a final act by some other person (for example, a doctor).

Physician-Assisted Suicide

Requires a final act by the patient, can also be undertaken for the good of that patient, and involves intentionally ending a human life.

Voluntary Euthanasia

Both the patient and doctor intend the death.

Intrinsic Value

Life's value; debate about the right to choose death may appear to present a stand-off between people who endorse life's intrinsic value, and those who think life's value depends on the interests, judgments, and choices of the person whose life it is.

Benefit of Death

A person's life would go on containing only misery and pain with no compensating goods, and the person will be better off living a shorter life containing fewer such uncompensated-for bad things rather than a longer one containing more of them.

Morphine for Pain Relief

The greater good for the patient is relief of pain, and the lesser evil is loss of life. The patient is terminally ill, and in severe pain, so life would end soon anyway and is not of very good quality. The patient is overall benefited by having a shorter pain-free life rather than a longer, even more painful life.

Doctrine of Double Effect

There is a large moral difference between acting with the foresight that one's conduct will have some evil consequence and acting with the intent to produce that same evil (even as part of or means to a greater good).

Kantian Argument on Intentional Killing

Requires that we treat ourselves or other persons as available to be used for achieving certain goods- in particular, the reduction of suffering. In euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, we intentionally terminate a being with a rational nature-a being that judges, aims at goals, and evaluates how to act.

Kant's View on Rational Humanity

Rational humanity, as embodied in ourselves and others, is and should be treated as an end in itself, and not a mere means to happiness or other goals.

Dworkin et al. Argument

Argue from the premise that it is permissible to omit or terminate treatment with the intention that the patient die to the conclusion that it is permissible to assist in the killing of the patient intending death.

Velleman's Argument

Argues against institutionalizing a right to die, in law or the norms governing medical practice, because there are important reasons not to give certain options at the end of life, reasons having to do with features of our culture.

Kant's Dignity

Belongs to persons by virtue of their rational nature, and that places them beyond all price, and is not invoking anything that requires the ability to walk unaided, to feed oneself, or to control one's bowels.

Patient Autonomy

Can be valued by obeying the categorical imperative and declining to act for reasons that we could not rationally propose as valid for all rational beings, including those who are affected by our action, such as the patient.

Undesirable Options

Because they subject one to various kinds of pressure and because of what it expresses. To offer a student the option of receiving remedial instruction after class is to imply that he is not keeping up.

The Harm of the Option of Euthanasia

That the option of euthanasia may harm patients, I think, is that it will deny them the possibility of staying alive by default.