Autonomy and assisted suicide: The execution of freedom

Hasting Center Report

Volumn 28, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 32-36

  Safranek, John P ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ANALYTICAL APPROACH; ARTICLE; ASSISTED SUICIDE; BENEFICENCE; CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; DECISION MAKING; ETHICAL THEORY; ETHICS; FREEDOM; HUMAN; MEDICAL ETHICS; MORALITY; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; SOCIOECONOMICS; UNITED STATES;

ANALYTICAL APPROACH; DEATH AND EUTHANASIA;

BENEFICENCE; CULTURE; DECISION MAKING; ETHICAL ANALYSIS; ETHICAL THEORY; ETHICS, MEDICAL; FREEDOM; HUMANS; MORALS; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; SUICIDE, ASSISTED; UNITED STATES; VALUE OF LIFE; WEDGE ARGUMENT;

EID: 0032107715     PISSN: 00930334     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3528611     Document Type: Article

References (47)

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28. John Safranek and Stephen Safranek, "Can the Right to Autonomy Be Resuscitated after Glucksberg," University of Colorado Law Review 69 (1998): 744-49.
29. H.L.A. Hart, Essays in Jurisprudence and Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 80-82.
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32. Catherine Mackinnon, Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), ch. 11-16;
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35. Jonathan Glover, Causing Death, Saving Lives (New York: Penguin Books, 1977), p. 192.
36. Timothy E. Quill, "Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making," NEJM 329 (1990): 1881-83;
37. James Rachels, The End of Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 152-54;
38. Marcia Angell, "The Supreme Court and Physician-Assisted Suicide - The Ultimate Right," NEJM 336 (1997): 50-53, at 51.
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41. Martin Gunderson and David J. Mayo, "Altruism and Physician Assisted Death," The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 18, no. 3 (1993): 281-95 at 289-90;
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44. Compassion in Dying v. State of Washington, 49 F.3d 586 (9th Cir. 1995).
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47. The arguments for assisted suicide grounded on dignity and beneficence incur some of the same criticisms as autonomy: what constitutes beneficent or dignified action varies according to each individual's view of the good. Assisted suicide is not considered beneficent or dignified for those who esteem the good of innocent human life or fear a precipitous social decline. Therefore proponents of dignity or beneficence must justify their violation of their opponents' view of dignity and beneficence, a view, that is, of the good. To appeal to such formal concepts as beneficence and dignity in justifying assisted suicide is to beg the question of why this peculiar view of the good should be legislated, particularly if others' dignity or sense of beneficence is subverted in the process. Ultimately, the debate must be engaged in terms of goods rather than formal concepts such as dignity, beneficence, or autonomy.