Article Text
Response
Moral duties and euthanasia: why to kill is not necessarily the same as to let die
Abstract
David Shaw's response to Hugh McLachlan's criticism of his proposed new perspective on euthanasia is ineffectual, mistaken and unfair. It is false to say that the latter does not present an argument to support his claim that there is a moral difference between killing and letting die. It is not the consequences alone of actions that constitute their moral worth. It can matter too what duties are breached or fulfilled by the particular moral agents who are involved.
- Euthanasia
- assisted suicide
- doctor-patient relationship
- killing
- letting die
- applied and professional ethics
- philosophical ethics
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Competing interests None.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Assisted suicide and the killing of people? Maybe. Physician-assisted suicide and the killing of patients? No: the rejection of Shaw's new perspective on euthanasia
- A case for justified non-voluntary active euthanasia: exploring the ethics of the Groningen Protocol
- Life support and euthanasia, a perspective on Shaw's new perspective
- A defence of a new perspective on euthanasia
- The body as unwarranted life support: a new perspective on euthanasia
- African vital force and the permissibility of euthanasia
- Passive euthanasia
- To kill is not the same as to let die: a reply to Coggon
- The ethics of killing and letting die: active and passive euthanasia
- Neonatal euthanasia: moral considerations and criminal liability