Mercy Killing vs. Patient "Care"

By: Noah Richardson

"Moral Reasoning"

Is reason or emotion the most reliable method in obtaining knowledge in ethics and human sciences?

Euthanasia and Doctor Assisted Suicide

  • Euthanasia - "Administration of medications or other interventions intended to cause death at a patient's request 
  • Doctor Assisted Suicide- Provision of information, means, or direct assistance by which a patient may take his or her own life
    • Information- providing toxicological information/describing techniques in which someone can commit suicide
    • Providing the means- written prescriptions for lethal amounts of deadly medication
    • Direct assistance- inserting IV line and instructing one on starting a lethal infusion

Autonomy

  • Individual freedom
  • Ultimate Decision
  • Hemlock Society

 

 

Sanctity of Life

  • The most fundamental freedom that humans possess
  • Declaration of Independence 
    • "Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness" (Language)
  • Assisting in self-destruction

Psychological Vulnerability

  • America is an achievement-driven society
  • Burden on the younger generation
  • The societal "offer of death" (Self Deliverance)
  • "Why not?" (Reason)

Right to Die

  • Right to end one's own life and ask for assistance
  • "Dignified death"
  • Right vs. Permission

Hippocratic Oath

  • "Moral Guide"
  • "Enemies of Death"
  • Rewritten over time to suit 21st century medical situations
  • Can morals simply be rewritten? (Ethics)

YES

  • "Where there is life, there is hope!" (Emotion)
  • Variation between how terminal diseases progress
    • A cure may be found! 
  • Against God's will (Religion), eternal damnation

NO

  • Unlikely improvement in the future, why endure longer? (Reason)
  • Relief of suffering vs. the meticulous palliation of the patient's symptoms
  • "Waste of medical resources"
  • Physician-Patient Trust Compromise

Should the patient be kept alive?

Power

  • Temptation of Power
  • Taking another's life
  • Taboo of doctor assisted suicide
    • "Medical Killing" 
    • James Burtchaell

Physician-Patient Trust

  • Chantal Sebire

Putting one's life into the physician's hands? (Human Sciences)

Chantal Sebire

52 years old

Former school teacher

2000- lost the sense of smell and taste

2002- Found out she suffered from esthesioneuroblastoma

2007- lost her sight

AOKs

WOKs

  • Language
  • Emotion
  • Reason
  • Faith
  • Ethics
  • Human Sciences
  • Religion

Reason vs emotion?

  • Jack Kevorkian -Suicide machines
  • Insurance "Just in case"
  • Unreliability of emotions
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