Physician Assistance in Dying: An Option for Christians?

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-249
Author(s):  
Lloyd Steffen
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Just War ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
Controversial Problem ◽  
Natural Law Theory

Abstract Opposition to physician-assisted suicide is widespread in Christian ethics. However, on a topic as controversial as physician-assisted suicide, no one can reasonably speak for “the Christian” perspective. Natural-law and, specifically, just-war thinking are claimed in the Christian tradition, yet the natural-law contribution to a Christian ethical analysis of physician-assisted suicide requires explanation and defense. Natural-law ethical theory affirms the central role of reason in moral thinking and provides a theoretical resource in contemporary ethics to assist in analyzing specific moral issues, problems, and conflicts. This essay seeks to demonstrate how just-war thinking, derived from natural-law tradition, allows movement from the theoretical world of natural-law theory to the practical world of normative ethics. Here the case is made that the just-war model of ethics helps elucidate the moral problematic involved in physician-assisted suicide while clarifying direction on this particularly thorny and controversial problem.

Relationships among Assisted Suicide and Religiousness, Resources Available, Denial of Dying, and Autonomy

1999 ◽  
Vol 85 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1070-1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alida Westman ◽  
Erin Hunt ◽  
Vincent Cicillini ◽  
Lisa Lewandowski
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Moral Issue ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Moral Issues

A nonrandom sample of eligible voters in Michigan ( N = 218; mean age 35.7 yr.) anonymously completed a questionnaire during the two weeks prior to voting on a ballot proposal endorsing physician-assisted suicide. Favoring assisted suicide correlated negatively with scores on religiousness, believing that only a troubled mind would favor assisted suicide and that vulnerable individuals would suffer were assisted suicide legal, with denial of dying, and with resources available during one's final years. Favoring assisted suicide correlated positively with indicating this to be a medical rather than moral issue, making one's own decisions on moral issues, and believing that people may have different opinions on assisted suicide. The role of experience with dying needs further study.

scholarly journals God, New Natural Law Theory, and Human Rights

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 613
Author(s):  
Christopher Tollefsen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Adequate Account ◽  
Full Theory ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
Epistemological Dimension

Critics of the “New” Natural Law (NNL) theory have raised questions about the role of the divine in that theory. This paper considers that role in regard to its account of human rights: can the NNL account of human rights be sustained without a more or less explicit advertence to “the question of God’s existence or nature or will”? It might seem that Finnis’s “elaborate sketch” includes a full theory of human rights even prior to the introduction of his reflections on the divine in the concluding chapter of Natural Law and Natural Rights. But in this essay, I argue that an adequate account of human rights cannot, in fact, be sustained without some role for God’s creative activity in two dimensions, the ontological and the motivational. These dimensions must be distinguished from the epistemological dimension of human rights, that is, the question of whether epistemological access to truths about human rights is possible without reference to God’s existence, nature, or will. The NNL view is that such access is possible. However, I will argue, the epistemological cannot be entirely cabined off from the relevant ontological and motivational issues and the NNL framework can accommodate this fact without difficulty.

2. Natural law and morality

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-73
Author(s):  
Raymond Wacks
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Moral Realism ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
Law And Morality ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the relationship between the ancient classical theory of natural law and its application to contemporary moral questions. It considers the role of natural law in political philosophy, the decline of the theory of natural law, and its revival in the twentieth century. The principal focus is on John Finnis’s natural law theory based largely on the works of St Thomas Aquinas. The chapter posits a distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ natural law, examines the notion of moral realism, and examines the tension between law and morality; and the subject of the moral dilemmas facing judges in unjust societies.

Szasz, suicide, and medical ethics

Thomas Szasz ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
George J. Annas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right ◽  
Suicidal Patients ◽  
Commit Suicide

Szasz objected to the medicalization of suicide, the legalization of suicide prevention, and especially the coercive role of psychiatry in this realm. He declared that, by medicalizing suicide, we banish the subject from discussion. What is meant by acceptable and unacceptable “suicide”? Who has a right to commit suicide? How does suicide implicate freedom? Does it reflect abortion jurisprudence? How do psychiatrists become suicide’s gatekeepers? Current phenomena (e.g., new physician-assisted suicide legislation) illuminate these and other issues (e.g., euthanasia, informed consent, informed refusal, the “right to die,”), all suggesting how Szasz would react to each. Suicide is legal, but is almost always considered a result of mental illness. Courts approve psychiatrists who want to commit “suicidal” patients involuntarily. Granting physicians prospective legal immunity for prescribing lethal drugs is, at best, a strange and tangential reaction to our inability to discuss suicide (and dying) rationally. Szasz got it right.

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the Dutch homecare sector: the role of the district nurse

2007 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.G. van Bruchem-van de Scheur ◽  
Arie J.G. van der Arend ◽  
Cor Spreeuwenberg ◽  
Huda Huijer Abu-Saad ◽  
Ruud H.J. ter Meulen
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
District Nurse

The Euthanasia Debate: Attitudes, Practices and Psychiatric Considerations

1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 593-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harvey Max Chochinov ◽  
Keith G Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Psychiatric Morbidity ◽  
Physician Attitudes ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Hastened Death ◽  
Desire For Death

Objective To review the current status of the euthanasia debate by examining public and physician attitudes towards euthanasia, the practice of euthanasia in the Netherlands, recent developments in Canada and other countries, psychosocial considerations related to the desire for death in terminally inpatients, and the roles that psychiatrists may be asked to play in the event of legislative reform involving decriminalization. Methods A literature review was conducted focusing on recent surveys regarding physician and patient attitudes towards euthanasia, the role of psychiatrists and empirical data pertaining to the mental state of patients who request physician-hastened death. Results Psychiatric morbidity among patients requesting physician-hastened death is considerable. Conclusion As a special case of suicide, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are of particular relevance to mental health professionals.

scholarly journals Role of non-governmental organisations in physician assisted suicide

BMJ ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 334 (7588) ◽  
pp. 295-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J Ziegler ◽  
Georg Bosshard
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide

scholarly journals En tredje vej for teologisk etik?

2015 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-123
Author(s):  
Svend Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Doctoral Degree ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Theological Foundation ◽  
Natural Law Theory

The article is a review of Ulrik B. Nissen’s higher doctoral degree thesis, which deals with Bonhoeffer’s ethics seen within the Lutheran tradition. By means of the exposition of Luther’s and Bonhoeffer’s ethical thoughts, Nissen aims at formulating a third position between universality and specificity, particularly in regard to the role of Christian/religious arguments in public discourse. As a conceptual instrument for grasping the theological foundation of the alleged third way, Nissen uses Chalcedonian Christology and communicatio idiomatum.The reviewer claims that even if there is, in Lutheran ethics, a combination of a specific Christian and a universal dimension – the latter consisting in natural law theory – it does not contribute to a deeper understanding to interprete this combination as a manifestation of the intertwinement of the two natures of Christ.

Physician-assisted suicide and physician-assisted euthanasia: evidence from abroad and implications for UK neurologists

2021 ◽  
pp. practneurol-2020-002811
Author(s):  
Uma Nath ◽  
Claud Regnard ◽  
Mark Lee ◽  
Kiran Alexander Lloyd ◽  
Louise Wiblin
Keyword(s):  
Significant Variation ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Motor Neurone ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Regulatory Oversight ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Common Cause ◽  
Loss Of Autonomy

In this article, we consider the arguments for and against physician-assisted suicide (AS) and physician-assisted euthanasia (Eu). We assess the evidence around law and practice in three jurisdictions where one or both are legal, with emphasis on data from Oregon. We compare the eligibility criteria in these different regions and review the range of approved disorders. Cancer is the most common cause for which requests are granted, with neurodegenerative diseases, mostly motor neurone disease, ranking second. We review the issues that may drive requests for a physician-assisted death, such as concerns around loss of autonomy and the possible role of depression. We also review the effectiveness and tolerability of some of the life-ending medications used. We highlight significant variation in regulatory oversight across the different models. A large amount of data are missing or unavailable. We explore physician-AS and physician-assisted Eu within the wider context of end-of-life practice.

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