PHLB09H3 Chapter Notes -American Medical Association, James Rachels, Assisted Suicide
Document Summary
Bioethics for clinicians: euthanasia and assisted suicide by james lavery, bernard. Euthanasia is a deliberate act taken by a person with the intention of ending the life of another person to relieve their suffering where the act is the cause of death. Euthanasia may be voluntary, involuntary, or nonvoluntary, depending on (a) the competence of the recipient, (b) the act-wish consistency, and (c) recipient awareness. Ethics ethically distinct from decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatments. At the heart of the debate is the ethical significance given to the intentions of the actor. There is considerable disagreement about whether euthanasia and assisted suicide are. Supporters of euthanasia reject that there is an ethical distinction between these acts and acts of forgoing life-sustaining. Opponents of euthanasia claim that death is a predictable consequence of the morally justified withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. Although they recognize the importance of self-determination, they see this right as irrelevant to social policy.
