voluntarily euthanasia (OCR A-Level Religious Studies): Revision Notes

voluntarily euthanasia

Voluntary Euthanasia: The act of deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering. A person's life is ended at their request or with their consent

Biblical support:

💡In 2 Samuel 1:9-10, an Amalekite killed King Saul when he asked for it "Then he begged me, 'Come over here and put me out of my misery, for I am in terrible pain and want to die.' So I killed him." (he was later killed for his actions and it was condemned by King David)

Scholarly support for voluntary euthanasia

Glover says that it is right to help a person to end their life when:

• They make a serious, properly thought out, and rational decision to ask for their life to be ended
• Others would agree that their life is no longer worth living
• There is no hope for a change in their situation 💡Glover goes on to say that refusing to help them to die is a "serious denial of the person's autonomy" over the matter of his own life and death".

Singer: also argues in support of euthanasia stating "Euthanasia is only justifiable if those killed...make an informed, voluntary and settled decision to die" John Stuart Mill: He stated that the significance of liberty is that it is the chief means by which a person determines his or her values, "over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign" He suggests that taking one's own life is a matter of personal autonomy. Thomas More, a Roman Catholic saint, "a torturing and lingering pain, so that there is no hope, either of recovery or ease, (they may) choose rather to die, since they cannot live but, in such misery," Hans Kung, a Catholic Priest, said "...as a Christian and a theologian I am convinced that the all-merciful God, who has given men and women freedom and responsibility for their lives, has also left dying people the responsibility for making a conscientious decision about the manner and time of their deaths"

Gregory Pence "It is not wrong to help the dying die because they are actually dying." Kevin Smith "euthanasia should be a personal decision between the terminally ill and their families, without idle threats of supernatural damnation"

Dawkins "If your pet is dying in pain, you will be condemned for cruelty if you do not summon the vet to give him a general anaesthetic from which he will not come round. But if your doctor performs exactly the same merciful service for you when you are dying in pain, he runs the risk of being prosecuted for murder."

Applied to natural law

• It is seen as an apparent good, whereby the person believes they are doing a compassionate thing by thinking about the person's wishes to end their life.
• The Law of Double Effect: The double effect argument involves making a distinction between foreseeing what will happen and actually intending it to happen.

Applied to situation ethics

Fletcher is an avid supporter of euthanasia and is credited for starting a change in the discourse around euthanasia within American medical ethics, he stated that euthanasia was the "merciful release from incurable suffering",

When making a decision in regards to the action to take the 6 propositions and the four working principles should be thought of. In the case of voluntary euthanasia, this approach allows us to put the person at the centre of each and every choice made making it the morally right thing to do