PHIL-386 Chapter Notes - Chapter 33: Intellectual Disability, Medicalization, Euthanasia
5 Jun 2020
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Consider next the person who is suffering but not competent, who is perhaps demented or mentally retarded. The standard argument would deny euthanasia to that person. If a person is suffering but not competent, then it would seem grossly unfair to deny relief solely on the grounds of incompetence. Considered from these angles, there are no good moral reasons to limit euthanasia once the principle of taking life for that purpose has been legitimated. If we really believe in self determination, then any competent person should have a right to be killed by a doctor for any reason that suits him. If we believe in the relief of suffering, then it seems cruel and capricious to deny it to the incompetent. I would note at the very outset that a physician who participates in another person"s suicide already abuses medicine. Apart from depression (the main statistical cause of suicide), people commit suicide because they find life empty, oppressive, or meaningless.
