Euthanasia AO2 Flashcards
Examples
- Daniel James: paralysed from neck down after scrum accident, lawyer described him as ‘fear and loathing of his daily life’ got voluntarily euthanised in switzerland
- Francis Ingels: mother who killed her braindead son Thomas Ingels as she thought it was what he would of wanted
Harold Shipman: doctor who used his powers to murder many elderly patients
Arguments for no death
Aquinas: “suicide is an unnatural act and a rejection of God’s gift of an immortal soul” God kills and makes alive
Kant: have a duty to not commit suicide, furthers us from summon bonum
Daniel Burden: “life does not end when you’re paralysed”
Arguments for human reason being unreliable
Hays: “reason itself is always culturally influenced
Hooker: diagnosis could be incorrect
Barth: “human reason is corrupt and cannot be trusted”
Arguments for autonomy
Hans Kung: “an all merciful God would give dying humans the responsibility of making a conscious decision about the time and manner of their death”
Kevorkian: “what counts is what the patient wants”
Mill: “Over himself, over his body and mind, the individual is soverign”
Arguments for minimising pain
More: cannot live in misery should die if in pain with no hope
Popper: Negative utilitarianism. ‘minimising pain should be prioritised in ethics’
Pence: killing people who want to die is not wrong as they are actually dying
Henry Sidwick: only conscience beings can appreicate values and meanings so they see life as significant
Marry Anne Warren
must have consciousness, reasoning, the capacity to communicate, self motivated activity, presence of self concepts and self awareness in order to have a good enough quality of life.
Fletcher
- 40 IQ probs not a person
- 20 IQ definitely not a person
most loving thing would be to euthanize
C.S Lewis
“agape is the real and adorable image of the divine”
Glover
-euthanasia may cause elderly to feel like burdens on their families.
D.Z Phillips
allowing suffering can never be loving
Helga Khuse
highlights in the Netherlands where voluntary euthanasia has occurred, there has been no discrimination or abuse of power
