Transcript PPT - A Level Philosophy

Euthanasia and applying
ethical theories
Michael Lacewing
[email protected]
© Michael Lacewing
Euthanasia
• 6 types
– Involuntary, voluntary, non-voluntary
– Passive, active
Utilitarian thoughts
• Act utilitarianism
– Look at each act of euthanasia individually; not
making a rule
– Involuntary: person doesn’t want to die, so is
made unhappy by the thought of their death
– Voluntary: person does want to die, often
believing they will be less unhappy by dying
– No significant difference between active and
passive
Two practical points
• Morality v. legality
– Whether a practice should be legalized is
a separate debate from whether it is
moral acceptable.
• Don’t get into metaethics
– The premise of practical ethics is that we
are searching for the (or a) right thing to
do. So don’t start talking about relativism
or subjectivism.
Deontology
• What kind of action is euthanasia?
– Active: more like murder, in that there is
intervention to cause death
– Passive: often combined with intended
pain relief
• Slippery slope
– An action that is permitted may incline
people to perform actions that aren’t
permitted.
Two more practical points
• Separate empirical (sociology, psychology)
from philosophical
– Don’t spend long discussing whether or not the
slippery slope would actually occur.
• The conclusion is often conditional
– It is not just acceptable, but good, to say ‘if it
turns out like this, then this follows’. E.g. ‘if
allowing voluntary euthanasia in some cases
caused people to seek it wrongly, then it would
be wrong to allow it at all’
Complexity
• So is voluntary euthanasia permissible?
• Utilitarianism
– Pro: Individual’s suffer differently
– Con: Allowing it has bad consequences, e.g.
looking at better alternatives
• Deontology
– Pro: passive eu is not unjust, and is charitable
– Con: bringing about death unnecessarily is always
wrong
Two final practical points
• Avoid oversimplification
– Normative theories might not deliver just one
answer, but give reasons both for and against.
Noting this is important for evaluation.
• Don’t say ‘Who knows? Who can say?’
– You are the thinker – this is your attempt to try
to say.
– Why think practical ethics should or could be
easy?