PHIL 356 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Lecture Recording, Dementia, Assisted Suicide
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Active: (administering a lethal dose of medication: [x, [o] Why might someone think otherwise: > she thinks killing is morally worse than letting die. Contra-rachels: when one does not have a special reason to defer to someone"s wishes, killing her against her will for benevolent reasons is morally worse than letting her die against her will for benevolent reasons. Rachels (modified) response: killing someone at their request for benevolent reasons is not morally worse than letting her die at her request for benevolent reasons: > letting nature take its course vs. interfering with the course of nature. Nagel says it"s artribuary to restrict the goods and evils that can befall a man to non- relational properties ascribable to him at a particular time. So what matters is how the condition somebody is at the time is related to a condition they were in prior to the time.
