Ethics: Euthanasia

Question 1

What does Sanctity of Life mean?

Answer 1

Human life is God given and is therefore sacred- this means God can only take and give life

Question 2

What does Quality of Life mean?

Answer 2

Life is meaningful in terms of experience and happiness

Question 3

What does Personhood mean?

Answer 3

The consideration of humans as a person- it raises the question of when does a human become a person

Question 4

What does Dignity mean?

Answer 4

Your self-worth and respect

Question 5

What does Euthanasia mean?

Answer 5

The merciful killing to alleviate the pain of a person by ending their life

Question 6

What does Active Euthanasia (Voluntary Euthanasia) mean?

Answer 6

When you give a person something to end there life e.g. a drug. This is at the persons request- this follows an Act of Commision

Question 7

What does Passive Euthanasia mean?

Answer 7

When you withhold treatment from a patient and then allow nature to take its course- also known as the ‘Non-Treatment Decision’ and follows an Act of Omission

Question 8

What does Autonomy mean?

Answer 8

Human freedom and free will

Question 9

What does an Act of Omission mean?

Answer 9

Not doing something that would keep someone alive- this is seen is Passive Euthanasia

Question 10

What does an Act of Commission mean?

Answer 10

Doing an action that will result in death- this is seen in Active Euthanasia

Question 11

What does Advanced Directives mean?

Answer 11

This is a living will that states what should happen to you if you become incapacitated- In the Netherlands you can request to be killed if disabled

Question 12

What does Double Effect mean?

Answer 12

An act needs to have good intentions, but the outcome may cause a bad effect- can be seen in Natural law as the Doctrine of Double Effect

Question 13

What does Euthanic mean?

Answer 13

A drug suitable for killing someone

Question 14

What does Physician Assisted Suicide mean?

Answer 14

A doctor prescribes a drug which the patient takes to kill themselves- also know as assisted suicide

Question 15

What does Physicians Aid in Dying mean?

Answer 15

A persons death is hastened but not at the direct cause of the doctor

Question 16

What does Voluntary Euthanasia (Active Euthanasia) mean?

Answer 16

A doctor administers a lethal injection to someone who requested euthanasia

Question 17

What does Non-Voluntary Euthanasia mean?

Answer 17

When a person is unable to express their wish to die but there are reasons for their life to be ended painlessly

Question 18

What does Involuntary Euthanasia mean?

Answer 18

When someone doesn’t give there consent to be killed- Murder

Question 19

What does Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) mean?

Answer 19

A patient is brain dead but there body is being kept alive by a machine

Question 20

What does Palliative Care mean?

Answer 20

End of life care- usually in a hospice

Question 21

What does the Right to Refuse mean?

Answer 21

When competent adults have the right to refuse treatment, even if it results in their death.

Question 22

Where is Euthanasia legal?

Answer 22

Netherlands, Switzerland, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington

Question 23

Who is Tony Nicklinson?

Answer 23

A man, from the UK, who had a stoke in 2005 resulting in him getting ‘locked in syndrome’. This is where his body was unable to move but his mind was unaffected. He then went to the High court to ask if he could be euthanised (Voluntarily) but they said no as he wasn’t terminally ill and had a good quality of life.So he then refused food and water (An Act of Omission) and died in 2012.

Question 24

Who is Dr Kevorkian?

Answer 24

He was a Dr who helped 130 people end there lives via suicide in USA. He did this by using a machine called ‘The Mercitron’, which he made from $30 worth of scrap metals.

Question 25

What happened to Kevorkian after Thomas Youk?

Answer 25

On November 22 1998, Kevorkian aired a videotape, which he had made on September 17 1998, of the Voluntary Euthanasia of Thomas Youk but Kevorkian himself gave the injection. This lead to him being imprisoned for second degree murder. This lasted for 8 years, until he was let out on parole in 2007 but died in 2011.

Question 26

Who was Thomas Youk?

Answer 26

A 52 year old man, who has ALS (a terminal neurological disorder characterised by progressive degeneration of motor cells in the spinal cord and brain). He was killed by Dr Kevorkian on September 17th 1998 from euthanasia.

Question 27

Strengths of Euthanasia

Answer 27

Strengths:
-We all have rights and freedom. If this is true why can’t we pick when to die, yet we also have the right to stop eating and drinking. This is how people who have been refused assisted suicide kill themselves

-It only accelerates the process already taking place instead of just killing them. This gives the autonomy to decide when they want to die, also it is only speeding up a process of death instead of killing them

-It will save money, in healthcare. $86.9 million is already saved from not giving them medication, $149 billion was saved in 2021. People with terminal illness can become bed blockers stopping people getting there dire medication and care

-Comfort to them. They know they wont have weeks of being in excruciating pain in the last point of there life, they can also have there family around them instead of dying in pain and alone from suicide.

• 2/3 of people want it to be legalised and would want it if we were in pain
• Places where it has been legalised it hasn’t been reversed. For example: Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Netherlands, and Switzerland

Question 28

Weaknesses of Euthanasia

Answer 28

Weaknesses:
- Laws to ourselves and others.
~>The Hippocrates Oath is what doctors have to swear on to follow throughout there career. Some doctors say that they didn’t become a doctor to then kill people.
~>Laws are there to protect life e.g. murder. There is no distinguish to murdering someone than giving and helping them take a chemical mixture to kill them
~>Laws are there to protect life e.g. suicide. However, we try to prevent someone from committing suicide when they want the exact same thing as people who want to be euthanised.
~>Leaves people in legal trouble if they assist you in euthanasia (Family Members) It’s illegal to help people travel to another country to be euthanised, so when they return they could be prosecuted.
~>Leaves people in legal trouble if they assist you in euthanasia (Emergency responders) Its illegal for emergency responders to not try and help you as its there job, they also face a moral responsibility to try and help you.

-Life is sacred. Religious people would say that life is God Given so only God can take or give life, thus euthanasia is wrong. Humanists would argue that God doesn’t make life sacred but we do, so human life is all we have

-Problems for Individuals.
~>Capital Punishment. This is seen as wrong because of the wrongful deaths we see. This could also occur in assisted suicide from people doing it because of peer pressure or feeling like a burden
~>Split us in two. We have suicidal people and we try to save them from death. But we also have euthanasia people and we are encouraging and helping them to die
~>24/7 care. People who have 24/7 care don’t live an accessible life that they want, they have no access to death. thus it means we are not an accessible an inclusive society

Question 29

What is the issue with autonomy?

Answer 29

The principle states that humans should be free to make decisions for themselves, but we have laws like euthanasia stopping people from making these decisions

Question 30

What is the issue with Personhood?

Answer 30

It creates lots of questions about when is a person a person? And what makes a person?

Question 31

What does Grisez and Boyle say about Person Hood?

Answer 31

They say that a person is anyone that is bodily alive, so a person in PVS would still be a person as they are still bodily alive. For these people they say that all euthanasia is wrong.

Therefore they say euthanasia is absolutely wrong because it aims to achieve one good (freedom and dignity) which contradicts other good (life and health)

Question 32

What is the issue with Sanctity of Life?

Answer 32

There are different types of Sanctity of Life:
~> Strong Sanctity of Life: All Human life is always valuable from the moment of conception until natural death. No exception all innocent life be protected

~> Weak Sanctity of Life: All Human life is valuable but bringing about death of a person out of love (agape) is not equilibrata to murder, in exceptional circumstances it is not wrong

Question 33

What Biblical Passages support Strong sanctity of Life?

Answer 33

“Choose life so that your descendants may live”
“So God created mankind, in the image of God he created of them”
“Thou shall not murder”
“The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken”

Question 34

Who was Daniel Maguire?

Answer 34

He was a catholic Scholar and Proportionalist (you follow NL but breaks laws if evil)

Question 35

What did Maguire say about Life?

Answer 35

He said it should be respected and valued but nobody should be obliged to prolong it in every situation. This means No-one has a duty to preserve a life if it will lead to extreme pain.

We intervene to save life and preserve it, so this is no difference to ending life. This means there’s moral difference to ending in life or saving one.

Maguire would accept:
~> Passive
~> Active
~> Non-voluntarily
~> Voluntarily

Question 36

What is Quality Of Life?

Answer 36

This takes an instrumentalist view on human life, they say humans life is only worthwhile if it can fulfil those things that make life worth living

Question 37

What is the issues with Quality Of Life with Peter Singer?

Answer 37

They say the value of life depends on a person’s ability to have desires and preferences. He would then allow voluntarily, assisted suicide, and active euthanasia.

People should be allowed to judge their life based on its quality and so people should be free to decide what happens to their own life.

Question 38

What does Jonathon Glover think about Euthanasia?

Answer 38

The body is important only in so for as it enables conscious expierences to be possible. Thus he rejects the idea of voluntarily or active euthanasia.

If there is an inability to feel happy and express preferences supports the view that there is a case for voluntarily euthanasia.

Question 39

What does Jonathon Glover think about the Body?

Answer 39

The body is important only in so for as it enables conscious expierences to be possible

Question 40

What is the example of Smith?

Answer 40

Smith will got a fortunate if his nephew dies. So smith drowns him in the bath and makes it look like a accident. Smith took an act.

Question 41

What is the example of Jones?

Answer 41

Joanne’s will get a fortune if his nephew dies. Jones then watches his nephew trip and hit his head and drown in the bathroom. Jones does nothing though. The nephews defeat is an ‘omission’, James could have saved him