Euthanasia and the good life: why euthanasia is (sometimes) ethical

THE CONUNDRUM OF EUTHANASIA

Euthanasia: from ethical debate to clinical reality.

W hile it may only be the third-leading neoplasm worldwide, lung cancer is the first cause of death by cancer in males and one of the first in females in industrialised countries. Overall, cure rate is only 10–15% and the majority of patients, most of whom are diagnosed at an advanced stage and will ultimately die from lung cancer progression or related complications. During the last few decade...

Euthanasia and the quality of life debate.

Orthodox Christian ethics is grounded in the sacredness of life principle. Yet, it can accept a quality of life approach where "quality" refers not to capacities or states, but to the relationship between the patient's condition and the quest for transcendent life goals (Walter and Shannon, 1990). The true quality of human life derives from the vocation to stewardship, which enjoins an attitude...

Drowning is not euthanasia

Historically, there has been considerable discussion within the nuisance wildlife control and trapping communities as to whether drowning is a humane method for killing animals. The issue received more attention in 1993, when the American Veterinary Medical Association's Panel on Euthanasia reaffirmed its position that drowning is an unacceptable method (Andrews et al. 1993). For this article, ...

Buddhism, euthanasia and the sanctity of life.

Damien and John Keown claim that there is important common ground between Buddhism and Christianity on the issue of euthanasia and that both traditions oppose it for similar reasons in order to espouse a "sanctity of life" position. I argue that the appearance of consensus is partly created by their failure to specify clearly enough certain key notions in the argument: particularly Buddhism, eu...