Kant's Theory of Deontology and Euthanasia

472 Words1 Page

I am going to apply the theory of Kant’s Deontology to the case regarding assisted suicide for psychological suffering.

Based on Kant’s theory, I have found suicide morally unjust.

This case is about euthanasia and assisted suicide. On September 28, 1991, Dr. Boudewijn Chabot administered a sufficient amount of sleeping pills and a liquid drug mixture to a patient with the intentions of assisting the patient with death. The patient, Hilly Bosscher, was suffering from depression, and psychological pain. She was recently divorced from a 25 year abusive relationship, and her two son’s had died. The doctor determined she suffered from unbearable pain, genuinely desired to die, and freely and competently made such a request. On the same day Dr. Chabot administered the medici...

Show More
Related

  • Jim Crow Laws Dbq

    420 Words  | 1 Pages

    From 1877 through the 1960’s was a shameful time for American history.  Most southern states had passed laws known as “Jim Crow Laws”.  Jim Crow was a slang term for a black man.  These laws were very anti-black, meaning they were established to ensure black Americans failed before they ever got to start.  These laws also set out to make African Americans feel inferior to white Americans.

    Read More

  • The Strange Career of Jim Crow

    1827 Words  | 4 Pages

    The ‘Jim Crow’ system was a time in history in which laws of segregation emerged. Woodward suggests that the Jim Crow system was not a result of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, or Redemption. The chaotic and disorganization of Southern whites during the nineteenth century, however, turned Southern history by developing the Jim Crow System.

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues In The Documentary, The Suicide Tourist, And Physician Assisted Suicide

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    A person that is suffering with the question to end his or her life, must have a deontological approach when making the final decision. A patient that is considering physician assisted suicide has considered the moral and obligational duties that come with the procedure. The person receiving care must think of his or her caretaker because ultimately they are the ones that endures the burden everyday of care. In the documentary, “The Suicide Tourist”, the husband spoke about the burden of feeling like he was punishing his wife for his disease. According to the deontological theory, the man felt as if it was morally wrong to continue living and feeling the way he did (Zaristky,

    Read More

  • The Forgotten Generation Analysis

    1536 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Jim Crow system was a post-Reconstruction series of legislation that established legally authorized racial segregation of the African American population of the South soon after the Civil War. The Jim Crow system ended in the 1950s with the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. As Hewitt and Lawson note, “these new statutes denied African Americans equal access to public facilities and ensured that blacks lived apart from whites.”

    Read More

  • Separate but Equal Policies are Inconstitutional

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    States ratified Jim Crow laws to legally segregate whites from blacks and they created separate schools, facilities, parks, and other separated places. When Plessy was arrested, he petitioned the Louisiana Supreme Court against Ferguson in order “to stop the proceedings against him for criminal violation of the state law.” (Handout) Yet again, the Louisiana Supreme Court refused and he went to the Supreme Court of the United States. The arguments in this case involve the 13th Amendment, which took away slavery and the Equal Protection clause of the 14 Amendment, which “prohibits states from denying any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” When this went to the Supreme Court of the United States, Plessy was brought to court against Judge John H. Ferguson. (http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/equal_protection) Was a state law requiring separate accommodations a violation of equal protection? Should the St...

    Read More

  • The Causes And Effects Of The New Jim Crow Laws

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    The laws known as “Jim Crow” were laws presented to basically establish racial apartheid in the United States. These laws were more than in effect for “for three centuries of a century beginning in the 1800s” according to a Jim Crow Law article on PBS. Many try to say these laws didn’t have that big of an effect on African American lives but in affected almost everything in their daily life from segregation of things: such as schools, parks, restrooms, libraries, bus seatings, and also restaurants. The government got away with this because of the legal theory “separate but equal” but none of the blacks establishments were to the same standards of the whites. Signs that read “Whites Only” and “Colored” were seen at places all arounds cities.

    Read More

  • Jim Crow Laws

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jim Crow laws are laws which were meant to segregate whites from blacks and to prohibit blacks from obtaining the same social status as whites. Jim Crow laws were in effect for nearly a century, from around 1875 to approximately 1964. These laws were primarily used in South but were also loosely used in the North. These laws came from the post war South where racial stresses were still high. With the passing of these laws came violence and aggression for those, for and against these laws. The South was hard to change, as is the world.

    Read More

  • Essay On Assisted Suicide

    2917 Words  | 6 Pages

    Currently, physician-assisted suicide or death is illegal in all states except Oregon, Vermont, Montana and Washington. Present law in other states express that suicide is not a crime, but assisting in suicide is. Supporters of legislation legalizing assisted suicide claim that the moral right to life should encompass the right to voluntary death. Opponents of assisted suicide claim that society has a moral and civic duty to preserve the lives of innocent persons. There is a slippery slope involving the legalizing assisted suicide. Concern that assisted suicide allowed on the basis of mercy or compassion, can and will lead to the urging of the death for morally unjustifiable reasons is understandable. However, legalization can serve to prevent the already existent practice of underground physician-assisted suicide if strict laws to ensure that the interests of the patients are primary are installed and enforced. When a patient asks for assistance in dying, their wishes should be respected as long as the patient is free from coercion and competent enough to give informed consent. The intent of this work is to examine the legalization of assisted suicide in Oregon and the Netherlands and to argue that assisted suicide is morally and ethically acceptable in theory despite some unintended consequences of its implementation.

    Read More

  • Unraveling the Controversy: Women's Right to Abortion

    1435 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pro-Life supporters extenuate the unethical practices in removing a child from the womb, assert the act of aborting as murder and that it violates religious beliefs. On the other hand, Pro-Choice supporters rebuke these claims with the right of an individual, the promotion of a group called Planned Parenthood and the possibility of the unfair upbringing a child will have growing up in conditions his mother could not improve. Although abortion conflicts with certain morals and values, abortion should be legal to promote the education of family planning and sex through Planned Parenthood, to protect the rights women have and to save a child from a rough

    Read More

  • The Right to Physician Assisted Suicide

    1874 Words  | 4 Pages

    The right to assisted suicide is a significant topic that concerns people all over the United States. The debates go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are against it because of religious and moral reasons. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians are also divided on the issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Many terminally ill patients who are in the final stages of their lives have requested doctors to aid them in exercising active euthanasia. It is sad to realize that these people are in great agony and that to them the only hope of bringing that agony to a halt is through assisted suicide.When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some carries a negative connotation; it is the same as murder. For others, however, euthanasia is the act of putting someone to death painlessly, or allowing a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right of people to determine their own fate.

    Read More

  • Kant and Deontological Theory

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    Immanuel Kant was a moral philosopher. His theory, better known as deontological theory, holds that intent, reason, rationality, and good will are motivating factors in the ethical decision making process. The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain major elements of his theory, its essential points, how it is used in the decision making process, and how it intersects with the teams values.

    Read More

  • Euthanasia and Ethics: Kant and Stewart Mill

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    The issue of euthanasia is one surrounded by much controversy. Here we will look at the moral system of Immanuel Kant and John Stewart Mill, the argument for euthanasia, and how each philosopher would respond to that argument. Immanuel Kant and John Stewart Mill have different ethical views therefore they view the issue of Euthanasia differently.

    Read More

  • The Ethical Dilemma Of Euthanasia

    1286 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dying with dignity, mercy death, right to die, and assisted suicide are just a few of the common terms, which describe a person’s death by euthanasia. Euthanasia has and always will be a very sensitive and controversial topic. There are two common questions surrounding this dilemma. The first is when is it considered mercy? Is it when a person is facing a terminal illness? The second is when is considered murder? Is it when a person looking for an easy way out of suffering and pain? This paper will examine the ethical dilemma of euthanasia according to the Christian worldview and compare it to other options of resolving the dilemma.

    Read More

  • Legalizing Euthanasia

    2049 Words  | 5 Pages

    Smith, M. (2002, October 24). THE RODRIGUEZ CASE: A REVIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT OF CANADA DECISION ON ASSISTED SUICIDE.Government of Canada . Retrieved December 26, 2010, from dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp349-e.htm#B. Section 12(txt)

    Read More

  • Reflective Journal: Reflective Journal

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    My future nursing practice is now changed because I understand the importance of patient advocacy. I need to trust in myself that I know when I am seeing something wrong, so I can speak up before it is too late. Because of this reflection I can see how trivial it was to be worried about my own professional risk over my patient’s quality of care. I am sure that I will never make that mistake again. As a health care provider, the well-being of patients should be a top priority,

    Read More

More about Kant's Theory of Deontology and Euthanasia

Open Document