The Ethics of Euthanasia

In 2007, Jack Kevorkian, who is also known as “Dr. Death”, gave a televised interview regarding his views on physician assisted suicide (Neal). He has been released from prison only several months prior to the interview: Kevorkian was ordered to serve a 10 to 25 year long prison sentence for euthanizing over 100 patients between the years of 1990 and 1992 (Neal). By his own admission, Kevorkian administered euthanasia to multiple patients and did so without pangs of conscience. In the highly publicized interview of 2007, Dr. Death quoted an eminent Scottish philosopher David Hume, who famously proclaimed that “no-one throws away a life that is worth keeping” (Neal). When asked to justify his views, Kevorkian made his position clear: the patient has the moral right to decide whether his or her life is worth living, society should never usurp that right from him. To deprive the individual of the liberty to take his or her own life is tantamount to depriving the individual of other inalienable rights such as for example, the right to free expression, or the right to practice a religion of his choice (Neal).

Although Kevorkian’s thesis strikes many Americans as outlandish, if not barbaric, David Hume was not the only eminent philosopher whose ideas can be used to corroborate an argument that physician assisted suicide should be legalized. Another renowned social philosopher, John Stuart Mill famously exclaimed that an individual is always sovereign over his or her body (Pojman). Therefore, an individual should have the liberty to harm him or herself, provided only that the self-inflicting injuries do not cause others to suffer. On this basis, John Stuart Mill defended suicide. The philosophical viewpoints of...

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...l three of the aforementioned schools of thought in moral philosophy, it is imperative that physician assisted suicide is administered only under those three conditions.

Works Cited

Crisp, Roger and Slote, Michael. “Virtue Ethics” Oxford: Oxford University Press. Print, 1997.

Neal, Nicole. “Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s life and the Battle for Legalized Euthanasia.” Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Print, 2006.

Pojman, Luis. “Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong.” New York: Wadsworth Publishing. Print, 2002.

Darwall, Stephen. “Deontology.” New York: Wiley-Blackwell publishing. Print, 2002.

Mulgan, Tim. “Understanding Utilitarianism.” New York: Acumen Publishing. Print, 2007.