euthanasia Flashcards
sanctity of life - natural law
claims that because God created human life, only God has the right to end it
-value of human life is intrinsic and therefore does not depend upon the quality of it or any other factors.
Humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1.27
- Life is a gift from God and not ours to dispose of (Job 1:21)
primary precept - preserve life, maintain orderly society (by following god’s design)
Proponents of the weak sanctity of life principle criticise the strong version by pointing out that it is only one of many biblical principles and themes. So, although sanctity of life is important in judging the value of life, there are other principles, such as Jesus’ emphasis on compassion
strong sanctity of life view allows unnecessary suffering and is uncompassionate
criticism of SoL
because those precepts are imagined to come from an eternal being, they become inflexible and painstakingly difficult to progress. This makes them increasingly outdated.
Peter Singer criticises the way that the sanctity of life principle is applied by the Catholic Church – claiming that “they do not really act as if they believe it”.
- Catholic Church allows for passive euthanasia – the withdrawal of life support machines from patients who are in a coma or vegetative state
- allow war/capital punishment
- cases of patients in comas who the Church have allowed passive euthanasia for (e.g. Karen Ann Quinlan)
doctrine of double effect - intention is to accept ‘one’s inability to impede’ death
Küng - Jesus specifically challenged rule based ethics and encouraged his disciples to make their own judgements and take on personal responsibility for their actions.
fletcher - NL guilty oflegalism– being too focused on the letter of the law rather than its spirit and insufficiently focused on persons
quality of life - situation ethics
Fletcher’s rejection of legalism in the Bible including the sanctity of life.
The best approach is to follow the general themes of the Bible, the most important of which is agape
SE - euthanasia can be morally good, in situation where it maximises agape.
- if someone has a very low quality of life and an autonomous wish to die, it seems that Fletcher would accept euthanasia
Kuhse - patient autonomy and the right to die with dignity
level of physical pain should be one of the main factors in determining a person’s quality of life, as well as considering to what extent they can live a fulfilling and relatively “normal” life (eg. their mobility or state of consciousness).
- assumes that an individual’s life can be quantified in any meaningful way
Peter Singer believes the quality of life to be an important factor in euthanasia
Peter Singer’s criteria for personhood are rationality and self-consciousness
Rachels - biological vs biographical life
non-voluntary - not morally wrong to kill them because it doesn’t deprive them of anything that they are able to have a preference to not be deprived of
passive = ‘killing is worse than letting die’ Thompson
one should let nature (or God) takes its natural course, BUT thomson - there is no such thing as Principle of Moral Inertia - a duty to refrain from interfering with existing states of affairs just because they are an existing state of affairs
SE - only consequences/outcome matters
slippery slope
Anthony Fisher - wherever euthanasia is legalised, it is extended to more and more people.
- in Holland euthanasia was legalised for the terminally ill but 10 year later was legalised for babies in cases of severe illness
overall cases of euthanasia in the Netherlands have risen by 75 percent from 2010 to 2016. This could imply that when a country legalises it, attitudes towards euthanasia become more blase, indifferent and relaxed.
Singer - in Oregon only one in three thousand deaths are by euthanasia.
Fisher’s points are not criticisms of situation ethics per se.
They highlight the problem with allowing euthanasia in a society which lacks proper support for those who need it. Arguably it at most suggests that euthanasia must be combined with proper support for the vulnerable, not that euthanasia cannot be justified.
+ With the lack of data, it is difficult to be sure that a slippery slope is probable - it is probable that the rise of cases comes from a higher amount of people knowing about euthanasia and how to go about
+ what counts as loving is subjective, meaning a matter of opinion. The Nazis had a forced euthanasia program against terminally ill patients
+ Agape is more than just love – it involves selfless love of your neighbour; loving your neighbour as yourself
