Mendonca de Souza 1

Arthur Mendonca de Souza PHI1600 4 April 2014

To discuss Rachels argument regarding active and passive euthanasia, we must first understand the difference between these two concepts. They both share the same objective, the intentional death of the patient, and the difference between them is what causes all the discussions and controversy about it. Active Euthanasia happens when the doctor gives the patient something that leads to the patients death; it can be a lethal injection or any other medical interference. Different from the active, on Passive Euthanasia, the doctor doesnt do anything that directly leads to the patients death; he/she just stops the treatment and let the patient die naturally. There is a doctrine that permits passive euthanasia and forbids active, but many people stand against this doctrine for the reason that sometimes, letting someone die can be slower and more painful than just killing the patient. Another reason is that this doctrine can lead to decisions made on irrelevant grounds, based on something that does not have any influence on the decision of doing euthanasia or not. The book gives an example of an infant with Downss syndrome who also has congenital defect, completely unrelated to the syndrome. The surgery is easy and safe but the parents choose to just let the baby die. The point is that this decision was only made because the baby has the syndrome, if the baby was normal the parents would have chosen to do the surgery and keep the baby alive. In this case, the irrelevant ground would be the fact that the baby has Downs syndrome, and this influenced on the parents decision of choosing Euthanasia, even if there is nothing to do the defect and the surgery the baby needed.