Euthanasia - Pt 2 Flashcards
What is the Moor case and what does it show?
- Dr Moor relieved a patients pain with morphine that killed them, he did not disclose the dosage
- Argued allowing to die is not the same as killing
- Supported by deontologists
What do consequentialists consider when it comes to euthanasia?
- Judge a situation considering whether the outcome is good or bad
- Reject the distinction made between acts and omissions (See keywords)
What is the example of the doctor giving drugs in relation to acts and omissions?
Deontology:
- Doctor that refrains from giving drugs because nature should be allowed to take its course
- He has not killed his patient but he has allowed him to die out of respect of the life he’s living
Consequentialism:
- Omission of failing to give patient drugs and allowing him to die is equivalent to giving him drugs that hasten death
- Both outcomes result in death of patients
Why is the Consequentialist view of acts and omissions inconsistent?
- A shoots B (intended act)
- C sees A shooting B but doesn’t stop him (intended omission)
- Is C at all blameworthy?
What does the DofDE require for an act to be allowed?
- Action in itself from the outset is good
- Good effect and not the evil is intended
- Good effect is not produced by means of evil effect
- Proportionately good reason to permit the evil effect
Purity of Intention (Consequentialist vs Deontologist)
Consequentialist:
- Intention doesn’t matter when the outcome is still an evil act
Deontologist:
- Intention enriches an action, grandchild who wants to spend time with grandparents vs one that has to
Arbitrariness (Consequentialist vs Deontologist)
Consequentialist:
- Making decisions based on outcome is a systematic approach
Deontologist:
- Allowing a greater amount of suffering to take place because it was unintended in comparison to lesser amount which is intended is unreasonable
Ordinary and Extraordinary means (Consequentialist vs Deontologist)
Consequentialists :
- Who decides what ordinary and extraordinary?
- Refusal to end life may lead to suffering and loss of dignity
Deontologists:
- According to NL there is no need to commit actions that go beyond normal life-saving expectations
Proportionality and Quality of life (Consequentialist vs Deontologist)
Consequentialists:
- If prolonging life leads to greater suffering than should be acceptable to end life
Deontologists:
- Who decides what constitutes as ‘quality’?
What was the case of Tony Bland?
- After Hillsborough football stadium disaster he was in a deep coma
- Was on life support, breathing and fed through a tube
- After legal debate his life support was turned off
- Showed doctors cannot be expected to maintain a life at all costs
What is the issue of defining death?
- Old definition was when the heart ceased pumping blood around the body
- New definition is the cease of brain activity
- PVS who has lost cerebral cortex would be deemed dead
- Hard to define as brain can work at low levels and provide vital hormones
What is the dead donor rule?
- When there is no brain activity nor body function
- Each case must be reviewed on its own merits.
How does Natural Law criticise consequentialists?
- Fail to make distinction between allowing death (permitted) and cutting a life short (wrong)
- Without this primary precept of self-preservation would be a major threat to well-being of society
Social stability (NL)
- Euthanasia undermined social stability
- Undermines purpose of the citizen to maintain its laws
- Sign that society has failed in its duty to care for all its members
Duty to God (NL)
- Aquinas says primary day is to worship God
- Him and Augustine argue euthanasia is a failure of ones duty to protect an innocent life
- All forms of euthanasia are illicit and intrinsically wrong
No refusal of treatment (NL)
- Ordinary and extraordinary means does not allow dismissing ordinary treatment
- Life must be preserved and ordinary treatment is obligatory
- Extraordinary treatments are not necessary and may not have high chances of success
- Outlined by the Pope in Evangelium Vitae
Duty to protect innocent life (NL)
- Whatever state a person is in, they cannot cease to be a person
- NL sanctity of life argument grounds that only self-defence is sufficient reason to kill
- Any form of euthanasia is murder
How is Situation Ethics applied to euthanasia? (Quote)
- Combines consequentialism and the weak sanctity of life principle
- Believes euthanasia is sometimes the most loving action to take
“to justify one, suicide or mercy killing, is to justify the other”
Pragmatism (SE)
- Each case has to be judged to its own merits
- With PVS, there is low quality of life so passive euthanasia may be justified
- Using limited resources to keep a terminally ill patient alive at all costs (cost of others) is unjustifiable
Relativism (SE)
- Killing an innocent cannot be an absolute wrong, each case must be judged according to love and compassion
- Weak sanctity of life principle means life is given to us to use wisely and this might mean sacrificing ones life or allowing them to escape pain through death
Positivism (SE)
- No law which states life must be preserved at all costs
- They are invented by humans and this might mean allowing someone to die (passive) or helping them cut life short (voluntary)
Personalism (SE)
- Respect for persons autonomy and their human integrity
- Principle of one means acknowledging a persons lifee might cease to be of instrumental value to them
- Humanity is more significant than mere biological existence
What is the issue for the situationist? (Quote)
“harder to justify letting somebody else die a slow and ugly death… than it is to justify helping him escape”
