The legitimacy of prohibiting euthanasia
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Abstract
- John Arras argues against the legalization of physician-assisted
suicide and active euthanasia on the basis of
social costs that he anticipates will result from legalization.
Arras believes that the legalization of highly restricted
physician-assisted suicide will result in the legalization of
active euthanasia without special restrictions, a prediction I
grant for the sake of argument. Arras further anticipates
that the practices of physician-assisted suicide and
euthanasia will be abused, so that many patients who
engage in these practices will lose out as a result. He refers
to these losses as social costs to legalization. But the social
costs at play in typical public policy debates are borne by
individuals other than the agent who engages in the
controversial activity, specifically by people who cannot be
held responsible for enduring those costs. Even if plausible
interpretations of Arras’ predictions about the abuse of the
practice are granted, legalization of physician-assisted
suicide or euthanasia brings no social costs of this latter
sort. For this reason, and also because a ban on
euthanasia is unfair to those who would profit from it, the
losses in utility brought about by legalization would have to
be very great to justify a ban.
| Title | The legitimacy of prohibiting euthanasia |
|---|---|
| Creator | Gildenhuys, Peter |
| Publisher | BioéthiqueOnline |
| Academic Department | Philosophy |
| Division | Humanities |
| Organization | Lafayette College |
| Date Issued | October 8, 2015 |
| Date Available | 2015-12-23T18:33:14Z |
| Type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Keyword | physician-assisted suicide |
| paternalism | |
| physician-assisted death | |
| slippery slope | |
| euthanasia | |
| Bibliographic Citation | Gildenhuys, P. (2015 Oct. 8) "The legitimacy of prohibiting euthanasia." BioéthiqueOnline 4: 25. |
| Standard Identifier | Handle 10385/2061 |
| Permalink | http://hdl.handle.net/10385/2061 |
| Rights Statement |
Creative Commons - Attribution
|
| Rights Holders | Gildenhuys, Peter |
Contains
| File | Gildenhuys-BioethiqueOnline-vol4-2015.pdf | Uploaded 2019-10-20 | Public | Download |
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