2 of 66

Ethical

Write now Article Tools

I voted "yes" in this debate, but really the straightforward "yes" is too much of an unequivocal answer. The answer should be "it can be". I also believe, which for some might sound very inconsistent, that, although euthanasia can be ethical, it should not be made legal.

The Moral Case

I believe that euthanasia can be morally acceptable for exactly the same reasons I believe suicide can be morally acceptable: people cannot be denied moral ownership of their own existence. Denial of suicide would be denial of the most fundamental freedom in life:the freedom not to continue living. This freedom is essential part of being human. It is the reverse of this other unique aspect of human condition: being aware of our own mortality.

I think that situations in which suicide is morally GOOD are extremely rare. Situations in which euthanasia is morally good are even less frequent. However, sometimes, nay, very often, the moral choice is not between morally good and morally bad, but a choice of lesser evil. Euthanasia can be the lesser evil.

There are situations in which the extent of pain people suffer robs them of all humanity, of all dignity. There are situations in which life doesn't only seem not worth living for the sufferer, but can be genuinely deemed so by most onlookers.

The most clear to me is a last phase of debilitation, terminal illness: it's the agony, which is sometimes stretched over days and even weeks, with even the best painkillers struggling and failing to provide relief, with the body betraying the mind and the spirit that inhabit it. If the person cannot, themselves, obtain means of ending their life, I think it can be acceptable to do it for them, provided they repeatedly expressed a clear, unequivocal wish to that effect.

There are other cases, in which the person doesn't necessarily physically suffer, but his or her mind is gone. They are but the shell of what they were: their mind and spirit are not trapped in a decaying, agonised body, but already gone, disappeared in the flurry of chaotic nervous impulses and meaningless activity of the brain. If such a person is what is called a persistent vegetative state, the decision to end their life is often taken by medical personnel, but if they are seemingly physically functional, as in later phases of Alzheimer for example, the moral problem is profound if they are somebody who previously expressed a clear desire to not to live through such condition. I believe euthanasia is always unethical in such cases.

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Is euthanasia ethical or unethical??
We want to hear your view. Write now!