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EUTHANASIA - Coggle Diagram
EUTHANASIA
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SANCTITY OF LIFE= life is sacred because it has god-given soul. there are no reasons to end life from conception until natural death.
• life is set apart by god: we are created in the image of god. we have a spark of divinity. the incarnation of jesus supports this: there is value in human life, otherwise jesus would have come as a sheep.
• gift from god: if god is the creator of life, he should be the terminator. only god can choose if we die. life is a gift.
• innocent life is to be respected: “do not murder” is part of the social glue between people. it is a command to choose life.
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LAW AND EUTHANASIA
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1961 SUICIDE ACT: not a crime to commit suicide, however person who helped will be prosecuted
- supports autonomy, but actually supports sanctity of life by criminalising assisted suicide. it does not support vitalism, that all life should be preserved at all costs.
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QUALITY OF LIFE= an instrumentalist view of life: a life is only worthwhile if a person can do things to make it worth living. nothing good about being alive in itself. it has to have certain attributes to be valuable.
REJECTION OF SANCTITY
peter singer argued this. a person’s ability to have desires and preferencesgives priority to humans, not a soul. he has five new commandments: • realise that the worth of life varies • take responsibility for the outcome • respect a person’s desire to live or die • only have children if they are wanted • do not discriminate species
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AUTONOMY AS A BASIS
the value of life comes from autonomy. John Stuart Mill developed the liberal principle: that humans are the best judge of their own happiness and should be given maximum freedom to live their lives. the problems here are:
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• if the person is not mentally sound, is it okay to interfere?
• allows for paternalism, to over-rule their autonomy.
CONSCIOUSNESS AS A BASIS
Jonathan Glover argues that being alive is not enough for life to be valuable. killing is not wrong if a person is not conscious. the body is an instrument to enable conscious experience. he supports non-voluntary for PVS patients.
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VOLUNTARY
CONSEQUENTIALISM: the outcome judges of good or bad. acts and omissions is the difference doingsomething immoral and not doing it. if a doctor stops giving life-saving drugs, he has allowed them to die. for a consequentialist, this refraining is still an act of helping death. both doing and not doing are immoral because the patient dies.
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PROBLEMS:
• purity of intention: evil is evil but there is a difference between visiting a relative because you have to and because you want to, changes the action.
• ordinary and extraordinary means: extraordinary? if a person refuses food and water in order to die, they have committed a mortal sin. but if a person refuses surgery, it is within their rights because it is more than whats needed for bare existence.
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NON VOLUNTARY
vegetative state and defining death
if someone is brain dead, are they alive? in the past it was defined by heart beat. today people can be kept alive like this for ages, but it does not mean they are living. death is now defined as no brain activity. but this is hard to diagnose. the brain can function at very low levels to keep the body alive.
deciding patient’s best interests
life is not just a biological fact, it is a moral and evaluative judgement. dead donor rule is death of both brain and body. it must be viewed situationally.
APPLICATIONS
NATURAL LAW
• social stability: euthanasia and suicide undermines citizens maintaining laws. society has failed its duty of care.
• duty to god: primary duty is to god, failing to protect innocent life is not allowed. all forms of euth are wrong.
• no refusal of treatment: a sick person still needs food and water, not necessarily to prolong it. extraordinary treatment is not obligatory if success is not guaranteed, but ordinary is.
• duty to respect innocent life: no one ceases to be a person. natural law sanctity of life: only self-defence is a reason to kill. a doctor has a duty to save life.
• doctrine of double effect: only applies as a side fact of pain-relieving treatment and intention must be to help, not kill.
SITUATION ETHICS
• pragmatism: each case judged according to its merits. using limited resources to keep a terminally ill patient alive at the cost of others is wrong.
• relativism: killing innocent people is not always wrong because you have to judge the situation. life is given to us to use wisely.
• positivism: no law that states life must be saved at all costs. laws and rules are for humane treatment of each other, this might mean allowing someone to die.
• personalism: respect for autonomy and integrity. their life may no longer to or value to them: respect this. humanity is more than biological existence.