Ethical Stance On Euthanasia Research Paper

Ethical Stance on Euthanasia

Abstract
Euthanasia is one of the most talked about issues related to biomedical ethics today. This paper will discuss the ethical findings on the topic of euthanasia from a philosophical point of view. The paper examines the moral views of philosophers and then will end with an argument as to why euthanasia should be allowed in United States.
Ethical Stance on Euthanasia
There are many people that have their opinion on whether one should be able to end their own life when they are suffering from a terminal illness. Some believe that they should have the right to end their own life when they are terminal or that their quality of life will never be the same. Others
This argument could then be used to say that dementia-related diseases cause an emotional burden on the family. Family members interact with someone that is only a shell of the person they once were. This results in emotional strains on the family as they care for the person with dementia, but cannot be loved or even recognized by those they love. Therefore, for those who foresee dementia have the moral right to commit suicide so they do not force their family to care for them in their non-human state. If the patient does not carry out this duty to die, one could easily infer that some sort of mercy killing would be permissible (Sharp,
He believes that if suicide is permissible, it should also be acceptable to respond to a call for assistance by assisting. Although there is no reason to suppose that it may be obligatory actually to help someone die, neither is there any basis for a refusal to do so in the wrongness of a proposed suicide, because there is no wrongness. Brassington goes on to state that the use of Kant’s Categorical Imperative second formulation argues that if we are using euthanasia, we are treating a person wholly as a means to an end; we have desired that we want to minimize suffering, and we have chose to kill as a means to that. If we are to accept this argument for euthanasia, it only works if our actions are motivated by something such as a desire to reduce the net level of suffering in the world and if the euthanasia and the person euthanized are thereby treated as a means to an end. In cases where a person wants us to kill him and when that desire is what motivates us to kill that person, and where we have no other desires that motivates us to kill that person, it would be difficult to sustain the charge that we are acting in such a way to make a person a means to our end (Brassington,