The Euthanasia Debate
The debate regarding the practice and legalization of active voluntary euthanasia has existed for many years and there is already a wealth of literature on this subject from a variety of disciplines such as law, medicine, theology, and philosophy. This chapter reviews the existing literature to consider the principal arguments that have been advanced both for and against the legalization of active voluntary euthanasia. Although many of the issues are legal in nature, this chapter also looks at non-legal arguments. It considers the competing arguments and arrives at some conclusion as to whether active voluntary euthanasia should be legalized. This chapter also discusses self-determination, the patient's right to refuse treatment, an argument from mercy, promotion of human dignity, public demand and support for active voluntary euthanasia, the role of criminal law, the present limits of consent, the relationship between law and morality, and the relationship between law and public opinion.
Keywords: legalization, active voluntary euthanasia, self-determination, mercy, dignity, criminal law, consent, morality, public opinion
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .