EUTHANASIA

Created by: ElizabethH2525
Created on: 30-04-19 13:02

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EUTHANASIA
- Types of euthanasia
  - Physician aided suicide: dies AAR of their own voluntary action but with the help of a physician
  - Physician aided dying: knowingly and intentionally providing a person with the knowledge and/or means required to end his or her life, but not directly causing it
  - Voluntary euthanasia: dying AAR of their own voluntary action
  - Non-voluntary euthanasia: ended without their consent but the consent of someone representing their interests
  - Passive euthanasia: withdrawing life sustaining treatment which indirectly causes their death
  - Active euthanasia: deliberately acting to bring about the death of a person
  - Involuntary euthanasia: performed on a person who would be able to provide informed consent, but does not
    - Do not want to be euthanised
    - Weren't asked
    - Usually amounts to murder
- The Law on Euthansia
  - 1961 Suicide Act
    - No longer a crime to commit suicide
    - Those assisting another's suicide may be subject to 14 years in prison
  - Legal in Switzerland, Germany etc and some US states
    - Switzerland = only country to allow you to travel there to die
    - California's End of Life Options Act (AB13)
      - Allows phsyicians to prescribe life ending medication to those with
        Less than 6 months to live
        
        Sound mind
        
        Strong enough to administer their own lethal dose
    - Netherlands: no influence of a slippery slope since legalised
      - Argued by Helga Kuhse
        Argues the **A to be a scaremonger to support a complete ban on all forms of euthanasia
        Claims they use extreme examples of Nazism too often to support their case
        
        Lack of empirical evidence for the **A
      - ** Argument itself
        May use a fear of dying to grant euthanasia
        
        Could be extended to non-voluntary euthanasia
        Evidence that in the Netherlands some die against their wishes
    - 8 million people across America have access to assisted dying
      - Statistic fromDignity in Dying
- Case studies on euthanasia
  - Diane Pretty (2002)
    - Rejected a right to euthanasia at court
      - Could've been prevented
    - Died a painful death of choking due to her disease
      - Could've been prevented
  - David Goodall
    - No life threatening illness, but felt humiliated by his diminishing independence
  - Tony Bland (Hillsborough)
    - PVS
    - Court decided non voluntary passive
    - No QOL
- John Stuart Mill
  - Autonomy
    - Should only be restricted if causing harm to others
      - Known as his Liberty Principle
    - Applicable to voluntary euthanasia
    - Essential for the development of individuality
      - Allows one to reach their potential (Aristotilean)
  - "Independence is sovereign"
- Quality of life and sanctity of life
  - Utilitarians on QOL
    - A good QOL is one in which the good outweighs the bad
    - If your QOL starts to decline and it is no longer worth living, then it can be ended
  - Essential for the development of individuality
    - Allows one to reach their potential (Aristotilean)
  - Jonathan Glover
    - Being alive in itself is not a sufficient condition for life being valuable
      - For life to be worthwhile, it must also be conscious
        Promotes euthanasia when unconscious; non-voluntary e,g, PVS
        
        Taking a life is not in itself wrong; it's only wrong if the life is conscious
  - Sanctity of life
    - Only God can give or take a life
      - Life is sacred and holy
        Therefore to euthanize is a sin/test of faith
    - Foundations in the Bible
      - "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away" Job 1:21
  - Quality of life comes down to personhood
    - Mary Anne Warren
      - Criteria for personhood
        Consciousness
        
        Reasoning
        
        Self motivated activity
        
        Capacity to communicate by whatever means
        Some of these are not available to some subjects e.g. those in PVS
        Case study of Tony Bland
        
        Presence of self concepts and self awareness
    - JS Mill: to have autonomy
  - Argument against E: can QOL include mental state e.g. depressison
    - Should we promote suicide as well as E?
      - Chochinov et al: occasional thoughts of a desire for death = common in the terminally ill, but few patients expressed a genuine desire for death
  - Walter and Shannon (1990): whether we can achieve transcendent life goals
  - Patient centred focus
    - Judegement about their own life/fate
- Hans Kung
  - God has left dying people the responsibility to make conscientious decisions about theeir deaths
    - Free will
  - Can decide own QOL
  - Taking the right to die away may lead to etreme events
    - Jumping out of windows etc
  - We have prolonged death, so why can't we hasten it too
    - Life expectancy
  - The God of the Bible is benevolent; doesn't wishus to suffer
- Dignity in Dying
  - Campaign for greater choice, control and access to medical and palliative services at the end-of life
    - Work with doctors
      - Want assisted death, subject to strict rules and safeguards
    - Use key statistics to get thier message across
      - 300 dying people end their own lives in England every year
      - 82% of the public support assisted dying for the terminally ill
        79% of RE people support an assisted dying law
        
        86% of people with a disability support a change to the law
      - 44% of people would break the law to help a loved one die
        Risking 14 years in prison
      - Every 8 days someone from England travels to Switzerland for help to die
- Voluntary and non voluntary euthanasia
  - Voluntary euthanasia
    - Jonathan Glover
      - Better to die in safe methods than dangerous ones
      - Allows them to enjoy life until they can no longer live
      - Easier legally for family and friends
    - Gregory Pence
      - The dying are already dying
        It's not wrong to assist their journey
        
        Counter argument: everyone is already dying anyway
        Suggests we can kill everyone: slippery slope
    - Thomas More
      - VE is merciful; compassionate and withholding pain/suffering
        Help in the only way you can
    - Should be an offer emong many others e.g. palliative care
    - Happens already
      - 1994: British Medical Journal - some doctors already help their patients to die
      - Jack Kevorkian "death counselling"
    - Reasons against
      - How can you be sure of motives?
        Sound mind?
        
        Family pressure e.g. finances
        Feeling a burden
        
        Depression
        
        Must get informed consent
      - Mistakes
        Misdiagnosis
      - Abuse of the system
        Vulnerability of the elderly
        
        Scheming relatives
        
        Murder cases
        Harold Shipman
        Found guilty of 15 murders; 218 later confirmed
      - Impact on the community
        Damages established care movement that's been created
        
        Slipery slope
        
        Affects doctors; may discourage medicine careers
        
        Fears of hospitals
  - Non voluntary euthanasia
    - Key question: who makes the decisions?
      - Family members
      - Doctors
      - The courts
    - Cases often involve severe brain damage, brain death or PVS
NATURAL LAW
- Telos: do good, avoid evil
  - Evil is to sin, for to take a life is murder, against the 10 Commandments
- Real versus apparent goods
  - Good interior (ending suffering)
    - Euthanasia is an apparent good
      - Bad eterior (ending a life)
  - Bad eterior (ending a life)
- Absolutist; doesn't make exceptions for different circumstances
  - Doesn't make room for personalism; doesn't prioritise the person like euthanasia does
- Point for E: dehabilitated higher functions = rules do not apply
- The Bible promotes the SOL - Divine Law, which reflects God
- Euthanasia would effect the wider community - affects the ordering of society
- Preservation of life - do not assist taking one away
- Worship God: the RCC is against euthanasia

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EUTHANASIA

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