A Lack of Respect in Bioethics

Respect ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 252-269
Author(s):  
Samuel J. Kerstein
Keyword(s):  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Respect For Persons ◽  
Medical Resources ◽  
Respect For Autonomy ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
Physician Assisted Dying ◽  
Proper Weight

Samuel Kerstein points out that although respect is a commonly deployed concept in bioethics, requirements of respect usually amount to respect for autonomy, or for giving proper weight to the choices made by competent persons. Kerstein argues that increased emphasis on another sense of respect, respect for the worth of persons, will greatly enrich discussions in several areas of bioethics. He sketches a Kantian account of respect for persons’ worth, one that incorporates a prohibition on using them merely as means as well as a prescription to treat them as having unconditional, preeminent value. He then applies the account to questions regarding the morality of physician-assisted dying, the ethical distribution of scarce, life-saving medical resources, and morally appropriate reasons for having children.

BMA end-of-life care and physician-assisted dying project

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 409-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Brannan ◽  
Ruth Campbell ◽  
Martin Davies ◽  
Veronica English ◽  
Rebecca Mussell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Physician Assisted Dying

Arguments over Ends

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-106
Author(s):  
Sara Rushing
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Assisted Dying ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Intellectual Courage ◽  
The Will ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Physician Assisted Dying

In the United States, vast resources are put into end-of-life care and there is resistance to wider reliance on hospice, not to mention physician-assisted dying. How does dying get managed, and how do decisions about death get produced, within the logics that pervade contemporary healthcare? This chapter explores this question by considering how dispositions of humility and impulses toward autonomy operate both for dying persons and the caregivers attending to them in death. It argues that a relationally supported process of emotionally preparing for dying provides an experience through which we can learn about humility, autonomy, and other dispositions important for critical democratic citizenship: self-knowledge, self-determination, intellectual courage, generosity toward self and others, openness to uncertainty, and the will to persevere in our aspirations despite undeniable fragility.

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