Human Dignity and Assisted Death

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Philosophical Analysis ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Medical Context

Assisted death is an extremely contested topic in bioethics. Despite the strongly influential role human dignity plays in this debate, it still has not received the appropriate, multifaceted treatment it deserves. Studies show that the notion of dignity already plays an important role in medical contexts. However, its use in these contexts needs to be analyzed and explained in more detail. A detailed philosophical analysis of dignity and how it relates to assisted death will benefit both the general discussion and the specific bioethical context to which it is applied. The goal of this first in-depth examination of the application of human dignity to assisted suicide is threefold. First, it aims to enlighten and explain the widely shared intuitions about human dignity, which has a specific usage in the medical context of terminal illness, because opponents as well as supporters of assisted suicide lay claim to that notion. Second, it aims to push the debate an important step forward because arguments that are often taken for granted can be more fairly reconsidered once their relationship to dignity has been clarified. Third, by making sense of dignity even within the complex and seemingly confused context of this debate, one will have taken an important step toward a clarification of it in general, which might lead to its application in other contexts as well.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Muders
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Medical Context

This chapter provides an overview of the book. It argues that human dignity deserves a closer examination within the debate on assisted dying. The aim of this book is threefold. First, it will enlighten and explain the widely shared intuitions about human dignity, which has a specific usage in the medical context of terminal illness, because opponents as well as supporters for assisted suicide lay claim to that notion. Second, it will push the debate an important step forward because arguments that are often taken for granted can be more fairly reconsidered once their relationship to dignity has been clarified. Third, if one is able to make sense of dignity even within the complex and seemingly confused context of this debate, one will have taken an important step toward a clarification of it in general, which might lead to its application in other contexts as well.

The Good Death, Virtue, and Physician-Assisted Death: An Examination of the Hospice Way of Death

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin G. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Voluntary Euthanasia ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Comfort Care ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right

The problem of physician-assisted death (PAD), assisted suicide and active euthanasia, has been debated predominantly in the ethically familiar vocabulary of rights, duties, and consequences. Patient autonomy and the right to die with dignity vie with the duty of physicians to heal, but not to kill, and the specter of “the slippery slope” from voluntary euthanasia as a last resort for patients suffering from terminal illness to PAD on demand and mercy killing of “hopeless” incompetent patients. Another dimension of the debate over PAD concerns the evaluative question of what constitutes a good death. At stake are Issues of character and virtue in the face of death and dying and their Implications for legitimizing the practice of PAD. Critics of PAD argue that “natural” death in the context of comfort care, as provided by hospice programs, is the good death. In contrast, PAD amounts to an easy way out, an evasion of the ultimate human challenge and task of dying. Because hospice care is clearly preferable to PAD, the former should be encouraged and the latter remain prohibited.

Assisted dying in the terminally ill: an evaluation of views on euthanasia

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-352
Author(s):  
Sophie Duxbury
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Educational Backgrounds ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Qualitative Responses

AbstractIntroduction:The purpose of this study was to evaluate views and attitudes concerning the legality of assisted death and euthanasia in the UK and to identify the circumstances in which individuals would or would not consider assisted death.Materials and methods:The views of a sample of the general population in the UK were sought through the use of a mixed methods questionnaire open to the public for 3 weeks.Results:The responses of 117 participants were analysed using an SPSS MANOVA statistical test for quantitative data and an in-depth content coding analysis for qualitative responses.Discussion:The majority of respondents, 85·5%, believed that Physician-Assisted Death (PAD) should be legalised in the UK and that individuals should be able to choose when, 88%, and where, 88·9%, they die. Qualitative analysis revealed that more people would consider a PAD for a severe physical terminal illness over mental illness. There was no statistical significance for variables for quantitative data when considering overall demographics, professional and educational backgrounds of the respondents.Conclusion:The majority of respondents in this study indicated that they believe assisted suicide should be made legal and that the option should be available for those who are terminally ill. Views indicated that if assisted dying was legal, it would allow terminally ill patients to die with dignity and without prolonging pain.

Dignity and the Case in Favor of Assisted Suicide

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralf Stoecker
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Ethical Perspective ◽  
Commit Suicide

Advocates of legalization of physician-assisted suicide usually argue that it is as matter of respect for human dignity that people get help in ending their lives (1) because the prohibition interferes with a fundamental liberty to conduct life according to one’s own preferences and (2) because sometimes suicide is an appropriate measure to avoid living an undignified life. In this chapter, it is argued that although the first argument is strong, the second argument is misguided. Hence, from an ethical perspective, society should not legally prohibit physician-assisted suicide. Yet, the person him- or herself should not commit suicide either. In particularly, the person should not regard such a suicide as a demand of his or her dignity.

scholarly journals THE PRINCIPLE OF QUALITY OF LIFE VERSUS SANCTITY OF LIFE IN THE EUTHANASIA DEBATE: WHERE DOES ISLAMIC LAW STANDS?

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Omipidan Bashiru Adeniyi
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western World ◽  
Sanctity Of Life ◽  
World Today ◽  
The Right

The trend in most part of the western world today is the agitations for a person to have the right to take his own life, when such life, becomes unbearable due to pain, being the result of a severe or terminal illness. This is the position of proponents of the concept of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Opponents of the concept on the other hand are of the view that no matter the circumstances, a person should not take his own life because he has contributed nothing to its creation. They therefore uphold the sanctity of life as against its quality. This paper seeks to examine the relative arguments and will address the position of Islamic law governing the euthanasia debate.

When slippery slope arguments miss the mark: a lesson from one against physician-assisted death

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 657-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Blackstone ◽  
Stuart J Youngner
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Slippery Slope ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Slippery Slope Arguments ◽  
Life Sustaining Treatment ◽  
American Society ◽  
Susan Wolf

In 1989, Susan Wolf convincingly warned of a troublesome consequence that should discourage any movement in American society towards physician-assisted death—a legal backlash against the gains made for limiting life-sustaining treatment. The authors demonstrate that this dire consequence did not come to pass. As physician-assisted suicide gains a foothold in USA and elsewhere, many other slippery slope arguments are being put forward. Although many of these speculations should be taken seriously, they do not justify halting the new practice. Instead, our courts, regulatory agencies, journalists, professional organisations and researchers should carefully monitor and study it as it unfolds, allowing continuous improvement just as our society has done in implementing the practice of limiting life-sustaining treatment.

On What There Isn’t (But Might Have Been)

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Stalnaker
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Philosophical Analysis ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Philosophical Theory ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Contingent Existence

This chapter begins with some preliminary methodological remarks—about the aim and value of reduction in philosophical analysis, about thinking of the evaluation of philosophical theses in terms of costs and benefits, and about the contrast between realistic and anti-realistic accounts of a philosophical theory. It then discusses what possible worlds are and what the problem is about merely possible individuals. It argues that possible worlds are properties and not representations. It then takes an extended look at some examples of properties that are simpler and easier to think about than possible worlds but that share some of the features of possible worlds, construed as properties. It uses the analogy developed to motivate a metaphysically innocent account of the domains of other possible worlds. It defends a view that is committed to making sense of the contingent existence of individuals and properties, of propositions, and even of possible worlds themselves. The chapter concludes by sketching a problem that an account of this kind faces, a problem that will be addressed in Chapter 2.

Suicide and deliberate self-harm in elderly people

2012 ◽  
pp. 1564-1567
Author(s):  
Robin Jacoby
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Deliberate Self Harm ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Completed Suicide ◽  
Self Harm

Although in some countries suicide rates in young males have risen dramatically in the last decade or so, suicide in old age is important because rates in older people, especially those over 74, are still proportionately higher in most countries of the world where reasonably reliable statistics can be obtained. For example, in 2004 in Lithuania where suicide incidence is currently the highest, the overall rate in males per 100 000 total population was 70.1, but in men over 74 the rate was 80.2. In the United States, where suicide is neither especially common nor rare, in 2002 the overall rate for males per 100 000 total population was 17.9, but 40.7 in men over 74. Rates for older women are nearly always much lower than for their male counterparts. A second reason for the importance of suicide in old age is that the proportion of older people in the population is rising worldwide. Indeed, the increase in developing countries is likely to be even greater than in developed countries. Although rates vary from year to year and birth cohort to cohort, it is highly likely that unless suicide prevention becomes a great deal more effective than at present, more and more older people will kill themselves in the coming years. As with younger people, completed suicide in old age may be seen as part of a continuum from suicidal thinking through deliberate self-harm (which does not lead to death), to completed suicide. An added component within this continuum for older people is that of ‘indirect self-destructive behaviour’, such as refusal to eat and drink or ‘turning one's face to the wall’ which is clearly intended to hasten death. Finally, although this section does not deal with euthanasia and related issues, assisted suicide in people with terminal illness such Alzheimer's disease and cancer may also be seen as part of the suicide continuum.

An Examination of the Medical Aspects of Cremation Certification: Are the Medical Certificates Required under the Cremation Act Effective or Necessary?

1995 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.S. James
Keyword(s):  
Terminal Illness ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Mental Distress ◽  
Mental Disabilities ◽  
Topical Issue ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Legal Representation ◽  
Ethical Inquiry ◽  
Ultimate Outcome

Assisted suicide is a topical issue which has been brought to public attention recently through international cases and legislation. In particular, a recent case in the Netherlands concerning the assisted suicide of a depressed patient, and the pro assisted suicide legislation in Oregon, raise disturbing issues especially for advocates representing people with mental or terminal illness. The justifications for assisted suicide for both groups appear similar since both are vulnerable. Their vulnerability stems either from physical and emotional exhaustion caused by disease or mental distress and depression (J. Griffiths, 1994), which is often concomitant with physical disease (J. Billings, S. Block, 1994). Therefore, it is valuable to analyse the issues raised by assisted suicide for people with depression in either group. The arguments for assisted suicide are manifold, but the way in which society responds highlights inherent assumptions regarding the quality of life of people with depression. The limited rights and protections for people with mental disabilities in Britain emphasise the necessity for ethical inquiry and advocacy on behalf of these individuals. However, a conflict may arise for the advocate who opposes the ultimate outcome, death, yet values legal representation of the stated desires of the client.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document