Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia

Morally speaking, what distinguishes passive from active euthanasia? Is there even a moral distinction? Before we can answer these questions, it will serve us well to get a sense of what either type of euthanasia involves. Euthanasia is often termed 'mercy killing' or 'assisted suicid...

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Main Author: Chan, Jonathan Kai Shun
Format: Others
Published: 2018
Online Access:https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/11106/1/Jonathan%20Chan%20-%20McClure%20-%20Philosophy.pdf
Chan, Jonathan Kai Shun (2018) Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia. Other, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/3qas-p870. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:07102018-134655244 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:07102018-134655244>
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spelling ndltd-CALTECH-oai-thesis.library.caltech.edu-111062020-09-30T05:01:24Z Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia Chan, Jonathan Kai Shun Morally speaking, what distinguishes passive from active euthanasia? Is there even a moral distinction? Before we can answer these questions, it will serve us well to get a sense of what either type of euthanasia involves. Euthanasia is often termed 'mercy killing' or 'assisted suicide.' It is the intentional ending of a patient’s life to ease his pain and suffering (typically caused by some terminal illness). Euthanasia can be classified as passive or active. Passive euthanasia involves withholding common treatments (drugs, operations, respirators etc.) necessary for a patient to continue living. Active euthanasia, on the other hand, involves the use of lethal substances or forces (e.g. a lethal injection) to kill the patient. The prima facie distinction between active and passive euthanasia is that the former involves killing a patient, while the latter involves letting the patient die. Thus, some philosophers suggest that by asking whether there is a moral distinction between active and passive euthanasia, we are really asking whether there is a moral distinction between ‘killing’ and 'letting die.' With that said, solving this age-old 'killing' versus ‘letting die’ moral dilemma is far beyond the scope of this paper. However, I believe we need not fully resolve the dilemma in order to gain insight into the moral differences between active and passive euthanasia. 2018 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/11106/1/Jonathan%20Chan%20-%20McClure%20-%20Philosophy.pdf https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:07102018-134655244 Chan, Jonathan Kai Shun (2018) Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia. Other, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/3qas-p870. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:07102018-134655244 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:07102018-134655244> https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/11106/
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description Morally speaking, what distinguishes passive from active euthanasia? Is there even a moral distinction? Before we can answer these questions, it will serve us well to get a sense of what either type of euthanasia involves. Euthanasia is often termed 'mercy killing' or 'assisted suicide.' It is the intentional ending of a patient’s life to ease his pain and suffering (typically caused by some terminal illness). Euthanasia can be classified as passive or active. Passive euthanasia involves withholding common treatments (drugs, operations, respirators etc.) necessary for a patient to continue living. Active euthanasia, on the other hand, involves the use of lethal substances or forces (e.g. a lethal injection) to kill the patient. The prima facie distinction between active and passive euthanasia is that the former involves killing a patient, while the latter involves letting the patient die. Thus, some philosophers suggest that by asking whether there is a moral distinction between active and passive euthanasia, we are really asking whether there is a moral distinction between ‘killing’ and 'letting die.' With that said, solving this age-old 'killing' versus ‘letting die’ moral dilemma is far beyond the scope of this paper. However, I believe we need not fully resolve the dilemma in order to gain insight into the moral differences between active and passive euthanasia.
author Chan, Jonathan Kai Shun
spellingShingle Chan, Jonathan Kai Shun
Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia
author_facet Chan, Jonathan Kai Shun
author_sort Chan, Jonathan Kai Shun
title Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia
title_short Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia
title_full Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia
title_fullStr Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia
title_full_unstemmed Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia
title_sort moral distinctions between passive and active euthanasia
publishDate 2018
url https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/11106/1/Jonathan%20Chan%20-%20McClure%20-%20Philosophy.pdf
Chan, Jonathan Kai Shun (2018) Moral Distinctions between Passive and Active Euthanasia. Other, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/3qas-p870. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:07102018-134655244 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:07102018-134655244>
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