Peter Singer Passive Euthanasia

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Euthanasia also known as passive or active euthanasia, is the act of painlessly killing a patient who is suffering a terminal illness. Euthanasia is a controversial topic and the moral and ethical views make it illegal in most countries, however, emotional trauma and dignity of one dying is not taken into account during the process. By providing this opportunity to these patients, it takes the patient out of their misery. There are two terms of euthanasia called passive and active euthanasia – passive euthanasia is the act of withholding treatment and letting a patient die on their own. Active euthanasia is the act of killing a patient due to their request and it is illegal in the United States (Virtue Ethics). Countries like Belgium, Colombia, …show more content…

If they are not capable of making such choices, then someone else must make the decision for them, if that question should arise” (Singer). The goal of utilitarianism is to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people and in this case, it would be the family, friends and the person undergoing the situation. Utilitarianism would take into account the emotional trauma and dignity of one dying because it would look at how many people are happy or peaceful because of the death. The family and friends would mourn over the patient but they would also know that their family member or friend is not in pain. In Plato’s Laws, he claimed that suicide is disgraceful and its perpetrators should be buried in unmarked graves. However, Plato recognized four exceptions to this principle: (1) when one’s mind is morally corrupted and one's character can therefore not be salvaged (Laws IX 854a3–5), (2) when the self-killing is done by judicial order, as in the case of Socrates, (3) when the self-killing is compelled by extreme and unavoidable personal misfortune, and (4) when the self-killing results from shame at having participated in grossly unjust actions (Laws IX 873c-d) (Cholbi). The first principle can refer to a patient’s vegetative which is defined as one of “unconscious wakefulness”. A person in this state has lost all cerebral cortex function but retains a basic level of brain stem function (Virtue Ethics). As for Mill, he was a strong supporter of personal liberty, and in his pamphlet On Liberty, he argued that the only reason for society to interfere in a person’s life was to prevent him or her from doing harm to others (Virtue Ethics). Euthanasia is not harming others – in fact, it’s preventing one from being in pain any longer so according to

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