Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: There Is an Alternative
Ledger, Sylvia Dianne, Ethics & Medicine
Abstract
People request euthanasia or assisted suicide if suffering is unrelieved; however, it is argued that patients stop asking to have their lives foreshortened when their symptoms are well controlled. The claim that a suffering individual has a right to die (i.e. receive euthanasia or assisted suicide) is discussed; however, the concept that an individual has a right to die is rejected on the basis that death is an inevitability, not a right. It is argued that the rejection of values, such as the sanctity of life and the intrinsic value of life, and the acceptance of euthanasia and assisted suicide erode the moral and social foundations of society. The practice of euthanasia …
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Publication information:
Article title: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: There Is an Alternative.
Contributors: Ledger, Sylvia Dianne - Author.
Journal title: Ethics & Medicine.
Volume: 23.
Issue: 2
Publication date: Summer 2007.
Page number: 81+.
© Bioethics Press Fall 2008.
Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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