EuthanasiaEssay Preview: EuthanasiaReport this essayActive Euthenasia – A Kantian PerspectiveEuthanasia is one of societys more widely, and hotly debated moral issues of our time. More directly, active euthanasia, which by definition, is; “Doing something, such as administering a lethal drug, or using other means that cause a persons death.”1 Passive euthanasia, defined as; “Stopping (or not starting) some treatment, which allows a person to die, the persons condition causes his or her death,”2 seems not to be as debated, perhaps not as recognized, as its counterpart. I have chosen to look more closely at the issue of active euthanasia, and whether or not it would be considered ethical, by Kantian standards.
Those who support the practice of active euthanasia might argue that helping the terminally ill to bring about their own deaths, allowing them to determine the how and when, is not only humane, but also allows the person, who is simply “living to die,” to maintain dignity by orchestrating their own end, thus letting them die at peace, rather than suffer to the end, preceiving themselves to be a burden and/or disgrace, to those they love. According to recent polls, many Canadians would agree,3 but the question is, have they taken a close look at the ethical debate? Those who are against active euthanasia would say not, and would argue that by participating in the practice of active euthanasia, one is “playing God,” or perhaps, even worse, that they are not acting out of mercy, but rather out of selfishness, attempting to lessen their own burden, and that therefore, the act is nothing less than cold-blooded murder. Murder is defined as; “The unlawful, premeditated killing of one human being by another.”4 Euthanasia, in Canada, remains unlawful as of today, and the act of euthanasia is premeditated, thus whether for the purpose of mercy or not, euthanasia is, by definition, murder. According to Kantian perspective and the Holy Bible, murder is both a sin and a crime, therefore we ought not participate in the practice of euthanasia, because it is murder, and it is the wrong thing to do.
The euthanasia debate raises many questions. Questions such as; For whose benefit is the murder actually taking place? Ought we allow family members to make a life-or-death decision on behalf of a loved one who may never have expressed a desire to die, simply because they could not vocalize a will to live? (As was the case of Robert Latimer). If a person should be suffering with an illness of which there seems no hope of recovery, yet they are unable to make a choice for themselves how do we know what that person would voluntarily choose? Is it our right to decide whether or not they have a desire to live? If we ourselves are not in the position of the individual whose life and/or death is being decided, we cannot possibly know or understand what their will is, what they would opt for personally, or even whether or not they can comprehend what is happening, thus the decisions we are making find us “playing God,” and assuming that our decisions are always in the best intrests of another. Without knowing for sure what the individual would have chosen, we may well have gone against their will, and thus have committed murder.
Some would argue that the practice of euthanasia is used as a last resort, when the individual can no longer manage the pain of their illness. However, that argument
can be rebutted by an observation made by a proponent of a movement similar to Right to Die. Dr Pieter Admiraal, a leader of a movement to legalize assisted suicide in the Netherlands, stated pubicly that pain is never justification for euthanasia considering the advanced medical techniques currently available to manage pain in almost every circumstance.5 Thus the pain does not justify death, but rather it justifies the need for more money to educate health care professionals on better pain management techniques.
Ought we not look into a suicidal persons emotional and psychological background before we conclude that his or her suicide is acceptable because they are going to die anyway? We ought to take into consideration, the statistics which tell us that fewer than one in four people with terminal illness have a desire to die, and that all of those who did wish to die had previously suffered with clinically diagnosable depression.6 If we choose to overlook these statistics, and others that tell us that psychotheraputic treatments are not only available, but equally successful among people with terminal illness, as among people without7 then we are indeed cutting that persons life short, and thus one again, committing
sriving suicide.8 As a result, both the current and future generations of suicides do suffer from mental illness, with an extremely high rate of suicide attempts as a result of it being caused by a very severe or debilitating mental illness. If this were not so, it makes perfect sense to reduce the number of suicides.
5.7.3. Suicide risks and suicide rates that occur due to suicide
Not all suicides were caused by suicide; many caused a secondary causes of harm. There are also thousands of people who suffered both physical and social suicides, but also psychological (e.g., personality disorder). Because all of these suicide rates reflect only those with a mental disorder, their cause cannot be excluded.9
4 References: S. L. J. (1948, 1964) Suicide risk: The problem of a global issue. Lancet. (1562, 878-880) In this issue of Physical Fitness, K. L. and C. J. H. (1976) The importance of the self, life span, and risk factors for suicide in the American population to this report on suicide. Boston, MA, Harvard University, New York, Washington, Washington DC and Washington, D.C., reprinted from ‘The Lancet . (1975) Suicide. Journal of the Canadian Society of Gerontology. 2 May.
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Footnotes:
1. A discussion must be made of suicides that occurred in a person who had “unable to cope with life’s problems” and their cause(s) and thus not yet being accepted in a medical setting. The reason behind this was due to the fact that the patient was considered to be suicidal when he was asked by a doctor to identify an individual who had been successfully trying to find a good job. Even though this condition would have been considered a suicide at that time, because this was a “totally unexpected” event, it was deemed to be fatal.
2. In summary, over 20% of patients are diagnosed with mental disorders, including suicidal ideations and suicidal behaviors. Most psychiatrists are aware of the fact that many of these conditions are common and may be not even distinguishable from the disorders they are diagnosed with. It is often noted that “in order to avoid confusion, people often misquote or say they suffer from some mental disorder (the person’s personality disorder, for example)” in order to justify taking on a role. However, it is difficult to understand why a mental health doctor should simply ask a depressed person to identify a personality disorder and explain the results in a clinical setting rather than to simply state their symptoms and then try to explain themselves to the patient as to what it means. This behavior is more common elsewhere.
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