HSS 4107 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Baud, Jack Palance, Daniel Callahan
4 Dec 2017
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Lecture 10 causation and absolute moral distinctions. Absolute moral distinctions existed and one of them was that you never take someone"s life with acts of commissions and omissions. Make distinctions between good doctors and bad doctors (normative assumptions) Blame cause of death on the disease. (omissions) In the 60"s active vs. passive euthanasia (passive was acceptable) 1960-1990s in canada, the physician was not the cause of death of the patient, but they let the patient die naturally. People come along to challenge these things: nancy b. (justice dufour"s logic) Unable to breathe without a ventilator, and all she did was watch the walls. She was of sound mind and age of consent. The people who nursed her didn"t agree, her hospital in quebec refused to honor her request. Could not comply to her request for act of omission because it was unjust and illegal. They would be committing murder under the law.
