Euthanasia

Question 1

What is the sanctity of life?

Answer 1

Claims that because God created human life, only God has the right to end it. Humans were created in God’s image, further suggesting that human life is especially valuable

Question 2

Who believes in the strong sanctity of life principle?

Answer 2

Both conservative Catholics and protestants. Catholics would also think that Natural Law ethics provides justification for the conservative sanctity of life principle.

Question 3

How does 1 Corinthians 6:19 suggest that euthanasia is wrong?

Answer 3

“Your body is a temple of the holy spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God. You do not belong to yourself”.
We essentially do not have the right to take our own life.

Question 4

How does Genesis 9:6 suggest that euthanasia is wrong?

Answer 4

“Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.”

Question 5

How do the proponents of the weak sanctity of life principle criticise the strong sanctity of life principle?

Answer 5

Although sanctity of life is important in judging the value of life, there are other principles that should also be included, such as Jesus’ emphasis on compassion. The problem with the strong sanctity of life view is that it allows unnecessary suffering and is uncompassionate, seeming to ignore the demands of compassion. In some cases, compassion for the quality of life might outweigh the sanctity of life.

Question 6

Why is the Bible against euthanasia, implying the strong sanctity of life principle to be correct?

Answer 6

Although the Bible does have the theme of compassion, that doesn’t mean it can be used to overrule the sanctity of life. The Bible clearly is against killing. There is no exception mentioned for the sake of compassion.

Question 7

What is the quality of life?

Answer 7

Quality of life refers to how happy or unhappy a life is. Proponents of the quality of life in relation to euthanasia regard it as a valid ethical consideration because they think that life has to be of a certain quality in order for it to count as worth living.

Question 8

What is Peter Singer’s criteria for personhood?

Answer 8

Rationality and self-consciousness.

Question 9

Why is Peter Singer for euthanasia?

Answer 9

Singer argues that if we think about what we find wrong with killing someone, it is that it deprives them of the life they want to continue live. A consequence is that if euthanasia is voluntarily asked for by a competent adult, then it would not be wrong. It’s not morally wrong to kill them because it doesn’t deprive them of anything that they are able to have a preference to not be deprived of.

Question 10

Why did the Archbishop Anthony Fisher argue euthanasia as a slippery slope?

Answer 10

That wherever euthanasia is legalised, it is extended to more people. He points out that in Holland euthanasia was legalised for the terminally ill but 10 years later it was legalised for babies in cases of severe illness.

Question 11

How does Fisher further argue that euthanasia is dangerous to the elderly?

Answer 11

Some elderly or otherwise vulnerable people might be tempted to die because they feel like a burden. Western culture values success, self-sufficiency, productivity and beauty. Those who fall short can feel miserable as a result. If we allow euthanasia, such people might feel encouraged to die because they feel like failures.

Question 12

What was the controversy in Canada in 2022?

Answer 12

In 2022 in Canada there was a controversy over two high profile cases of people with medical conditions for which they received insufficient financial support applying for euthanasia. One called Denise saying they have applied for euthanasia “because of abject poverty”.

Question 13

What is autonomy?

Answer 13

The freedom of people to make their own choices. This isn’t directly a view on the value of life, but it is the view that the decision about whether a life is valuable ought morally to be up to the individual

Question 14

What Nozick’s deontological view on autonomy?

Answer 14

He argued for the principle of ‘self-ownership’, meaning we essentially have property rights over our own lives and bodies. If a person wants to die and receive help from others (making it euthanasia) then that is their right.

Question 15

What is Singer’s consequentialist view on autonomy?

Answer 15

Influenced by Mil, Mill developed political liberalism. Before the enlightenment, religion told people what to do. Mill thought that people would be happier if granted individual freedom. Individual people are in the best position to judge what is best for them and have the greatest motivation to ensure they live the best lives possible. This shows that euthanasia should be left to the autonomy of a competent adult.

Question 16

Why is the consequentialist view of autonomy suffering the slippery slope?

Answer 16

There is no logically coherent way to restrict the principle of “freedom to die” to the cases where it seems most applicable. If we grant that people have the autonomous freedom to die, how can we then avoid extending it to all cases where someone wishes to die, no matter how short-sighted their reason?

Question 17

Why does Fletcher reject legalism in the Bible including the sanctity of life?

Answer 17

Fletcher argued that the Bible is not a legalistic ‘rules book’. We can’t take the Bible literally, nor can we figure out which interpretation is correct. The best approach is to follow the general themes of the Bible, which is agape. This approach allows Fletcher to reject the sanctity of life principle.

Question 18

How does Fletcher apply agape to euthanasia?

Answer 18

Situation ethics would judge that euthanasia can be morally good, in situation where it maximises agape.

Question 19

What is W. Barclay’s criticism applied to euthanasia?

Answer 19

People are not perfectly loving so if given the power to judge what is good or bad, people will do selfish or even cruel things. People’s loving nature can be corrupted by power.

Question 20

What does Fletcher and Robinson argue against people not being perfectly loving?

Answer 20

Influenced by Bonhoeffer, that humanity has ‘come of age’. This means that humanity has become more mature. Now people are more civilised, to the point that granting them more autonomy will increase love without risking the stability of society.

Question 21

What is Barclays explanation against euthanasia?

Answer 21

It is a well-known feature of human psychology that power is corrupting. The freedom to decide what is good or bad without external supervision of legalistic laws grants humans more power and thereby corrupts them.

Question 22

What primary precept does euthanasia violate in natural law?

Answer 22

Euthanasia violates the primary precept to protect and preserve human life. Violating the sanctity of life also violates the primary precept of maintaining an orderly society.

Question 23

How does the doctrine of double effect in Catholicism allow euthanasia?

Answer 23

‘Direct’ (active) euthanasia is never justified, but passive euthanasia, whether voluntary or non-voluntary, can be justified through the double effect. So long as the intention is not to kill, the double effect would suggest such actions can be morally acceptable.

Question 24

Why is Aquinas’ Natural Law no longer useful?

Answer 24

Sociologically, we could claim these ethical principles were created to be useful in the socio-economic conditions of their time. They served a useful function in medieval society.

Question 25

According to Fisher, what is a more valid ethical response to euthanasia?

Answer 25

The valid ethical approach would be changing our society, not allowing euthanasia. Those who advocate for euthanasia think they stand for compassion, not realising they are the unwitting executioners for our merciless success-driven society.

Question 26

Why does Fisher not directly criticise euthanasia?

Answer 26

They highlight the problem with allowing euthanasia in a society which lacks proper support for those who need it. Arguably it at most suggests that euthanasia must be combined with proper support for the vulnerable

Question 27

Why is sanctity of life somewhat important?

Answer 27

If we stop believing life is sacred, we reduce the value our society places on life and thus will treat it as less valuable. That will endanger the order of society. No human is good enough to wield that power responsibly.

Question 28

What did the Tony Bland case provide?

Answer 28

It provided a precedent whereby, in certain extreme circumstances, non-voluntary euthanasia is in effect permitted. This is also an example of passive euthanasia, which involves the withdrawal of treatment that is keeping a patient alive. This indirectly causes death.

Question 29

What does euthanasia refer to?

Answer 29

‘A good death’.

Question 30

What does the term suicide refer to?

Answer 30

A person makes a voluntary choice and takes their own life.

Question 31

What is active euthanasia?

Answer 31

A treatment is given that directly causes the death of the individual.

Question 32

What is non voluntary euthanasia?

Answer 32

Where a severely or terminally ill persons life is ended without their consent, perhaps because they are unable to give consent.

Question 33

What is passive euthanasia?

Answer 33

A treatment is withheld and this indirectly causes the death of the individual.

Question 34

What is stated in Genesis 1:27?

Answer 34

‘So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them’. The image of God is understood in various ways such as the capacity for rationality, the divine spark within humans, or the ability to make moral decisions.

Question 35

What is stated in Job 1:21?

Answer 35

‘The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord’. It is for God to decide the moment of birth and the moment of death; it cannot be a human decision as our lives are not our own but God’s.

Question 36

What does Peter Singer replace the traditional sanctity of life ethics with?

Answer 36

He uses five quality of life commandments: 1. Recognise that the worth of human life varies. 2. Take responsibility for the consequences of your decisions. 3. Respect a persons desire to live or die. 4. Bring children into the world only if they are wanted. 5. Do not discriminate on the basis of species.

Question 37

How does the sanctity of life differ to the quality of life argument?

Answer 37

Sanctity of life: religious view, life has intrinsic value, supported by Natural Law, absolutist. Quality of life: secular view, instrumental view, supported by situation ethics and utilitarianism, conditional.

Question 38

How does euthanasia link to J.S. Mill’s non-harm principle?

Answer 38

Whilst the government or other authority may restrict our freedom if we are about to harm someone else, they have no right to restrict our freedom with regard to ourselves. If we wish to harm ourselves we should be permitted to do so.

Question 39

What does voluntary euthanasia refer to?

Answer 39

Where a persons life is ended at their own request. Usually this is done by another individual and is because of terminal illness.

Question 40

What does Glover state in ‘Causing Death and Saving Lives’?

Answer 40

“It must be convinced that your decision is a serious one; it must be properly thought out, not merely the result of temporary emotional state. I must also think your decision is a reasonable one”.

Question 41

What is stated in the Hippocratic Oath?

Answer 41

“I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to that effect.”

Question 42

What does James Rachels suggest on passive euthanasia?

Answer 42

Rachels argues that both cases are equally bad and when we consider the issue of euthanasia, passive euthanasia by omission may be even crueller as death may take longer.

Question 43

What distinctions between actively killing and passively letting someone die, does Rachels imagine?

Answer 43

1. Suppose Smith will inherit a fortune if his young nephew dies. One evening he drowns his nephew in the bath and arranges the scene to look like an accident. The nephews death is an ‘act’ of Smith. 2. Suppose Jones will also inherit a fortune if his young nephew dies. As he enters the bathroom, he sees his nephew slip up and hit his head and slowly drown. He watches and does nothing to save his nephew. The nephews death is an ‘omission’, Jones could have saved him.

Question 44

What does Peter Singer question on ‘acts’ and ‘omissions’, in relation to the Tony Bland case?

Answer 44

He asks us to consider whether the removal of the feeding tube was an ‘act’ that led to his death, or an ‘omission’, i.e. they were now omitting to feed him.

Question 45

What does Joseph Fletcher state in ‘Essays in Biomedical Ethics’?

Answer 45

“It is whether we can justify taking it into our own hands, as human beings, to hasten death for ourselves or for others out of compassion. The answer in my view is clearly yes.”

Question 46

What is stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2278-2279?

Answer 46

“Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate”.

Question 47

What does Fletcher refer to in his 1954 book, Morals and Medicine?

Answer 47

He argues that the patients medical condition has to be the starting point for any decision in medical ethics. This is not a total endorsement of euthanasia, but a recognition that there are cases where this is the right option.

Question 48

What does Peter Singer argue sanctity of life is part of?

Answer 48

Sanctity of life is part of an old fashioned traditional ethic that needs to be replaced. It directly goes against autonomy and control . Singer argues that people ought to have the freedom to make decisions about their lives for themselves.