GROUP 4 Anti- Euthanasia

Euthanasia- An easy or painless death, or the intentional ending of the life of a person suffering from an
incurable or painful disease at his or her request. Also called mercy killing.
Ethical arguments:

 Euthanasia weakens society's respect for the sanctity of life

 Accepting euthanasia accepts that some lives (those of the disabled or sick) are worth less than
others
 Voluntary euthanasia is the start of a slippery slope that leads to involuntary euthanasia and the
killing of people who are thought undesirable
 Euthanasia might not be in a person's best interests
 Euthanasia affects other people's rights, not just those of the patient
Practical arguments:

 Proper palliative care makes euthanasia unnecessary

 There's no way of properly regulating euthanasia
 Allowing euthanasia will lead to less good care for the terminally ill
 Allowing euthanasia undermines the commitment of doctors and nurses to saving lives
 Euthanasia may become a cost-effective way to treat the terminally ill
 Allowing euthanasia will discourage the search for new cures and treatments for the terminally ill
 Euthanasia undermines the motivation to provide good care for the dying, and good pain relief
 Euthanasia gives too much power to doctors
 Euthanasia exposes vulnerable people to pressure to end their lives
 Moral pressure on elderly relatives by selfish families
 Moral pressure to free up medical resources
 Patients who are abandoned by their families may feel euthanasia is the only solution
A non-religious view:
 Some non-religious people also believe that suffering has value. They think it provides an
opportunity to grow in wisdom, character, and compassion.
 Suffering is something which draws upon all the resources of a human being and enables them to
reach the highest and noblest points of what they really are.
 Suffering allows a person to be a good example to others by showing how to behave when things
are bad.
The nature of suffering:
 It isn't easy to define suffering - most of us can decide when we are suffering but
what is suffering for one person may not be suffering for another.
 It's also impossible to measure suffering in any useful way, and it's particularly hard
to come up with any objective idea of what constitutes unbearable suffering, since
each individual will react to the same physical and mental conditions in a different
way.

A) Sanctity of life
o This argument says that euthanasia is bad because of the sanctity of human life.
o There are four main reasons why people think we shouldn't kill human beings:
o All human beings are to be valued, irrespective of age, sex, race, religion, social status or their
potential for achievement
o Human life is a basic good as opposed to an instrumental good, a good in itself rather than as a
means to an end
o Human life is sacred because it's a gift from God
o Therefore the deliberate taking of human life should be prohibited except in self-defence or the
legitimate defence of others
We are valuable for ourselves
 The philosopher Immanuel Kant said that rational human beings should be treated as an end in
themselves and not as a means to something else. The fact that we are human has value in itself.

Our inherent value doesn't depend on anything else - it doesn't depend on whether we are having a good
life that we enjoy, or whether we are making other people's lives better. We exist, so we have value.

Most of us agree with that - though we don't put it in philosopher-speak. We say that we don't think that
we should use other people - which is a plain English way of saying that we shouldn't treat other people
as a means to our own ends.

We must respect our own value

It applies to us too. We shouldn't treat ourselves as a means to our own ends.

And this means that we shouldn't end our lives just because it seems the most effective way of putting an
end to our suffering. To do that is not to respect our inherent worth.

References:
https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/euthanasia
https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/against/against_1.shtml?
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