Singer Chapter 7
Taking Life: Humans

"Euthanasia": literal meaning, "good death": aka "mercy killing"

Singer (p. 175) "the killing of those who are

incurably ill and
in great pain or distress,
for the sake of those killed,
and in order to spare them further suffering or distress."

Types of Euthanasia	Active: acting to end the patient's life.	Passive: not acting to save the patient's life.
Voluntary: the patient consents to being euthanized.	Jack Kevorkian's euthanization of Thomas Youk: giving fatal injections	Pulling the plug; not administering medications; etc.
Nonvoluntary: the patient is incapable of consent and someone else decides for them.	If Dr. Messenger had acted to hasten the infant's death.	The Messenger Case
Involuntary: the patient is capable of giving consent but doesn't either (1) because they weren't asked or (2) they refused consent.	Saving last bullets for the family to spare them deaths by torture or from "a fate worse than death" at hands of Indians.	If one of the family was on a respirator: Dad unplugs it without obtaining their consent (saves a bullet that way).

Singer's Normative Views

Passive v. Active

"an untenable distinction": often "letting die" results in more suffering than taking active measures.
forced on us by legalistic ethics "of specific duties, prescribed by moral rules, that everyone can be expected to obey."

Nonvoluntary Euthanasia:

e.g., of disabled infants and irreversably comatose adults
Singer's verdict:

not morally equivalent to killing a person
"Very often it is not wrong at all." (191)

Voluntary Euthanasia:

justified if it's truly euthanasia (on the above definition)

by respect for autonomy & preferences of the person
by the clear rational basis of the decision

more strongly justivied than nonvoluntary euthanasia: "in the special case of nonvoluntary euthanasia most of the reasons [that make it more wrong to kill persons than nonpersons] count for euthanasia rather than against." (195)

striking fear into other persons
long-range plans & interests
self-consciousness based right to life
autonomy-based right to life

technical difficulties about sincerity & freedom of consent require safeguards e.g., the Dutch Guidelines.

Involuntary Euthanasia

"[T]reat the rule against involutary euthanasia as for all practical purposes absolute." (201)

The Slippery Slope: Euthanasia to Genocide

The Objection: a kind of de-moralization process will occur

accept voluntary euthanasia desensitizes us
into acceptance of nonvoluntary, further desensitizing us,
until, finally, we're practicing involuntary euthanasia.
as happend with the Nazi's (example often cited).

Singer Replies:

Nazi's never had a euthanasia program strictly speaking!

their program, from the beginning, was not "motivated by concern for the suffering of those killed" or respectful of automony. (215-216)

"Little historical evidence to suggest that a permissive attitude toward the killing of one category of humans leads to the breakdown of restrictions against killing other humans."

e.g., among the ancient Greeks (practiced infanticide)
and the Eskimos (practice geriatricide)

Guidelines: Traction on the Slope:

Important distinctions

death's being in one's best interest v. not

sets limits for nonvoluntary cases
a test of rationality in voluntary case

choosing to die v. not: voluntary cases

let's you decide what's in your own interest
subject to peer review for rationality

Explicit guidelines to guarantee restriction to these cases.