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Example research essay topic: House Of Lords Voluntary Euthanasia - 981 words

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... rly arbitrary. Advocates of the legalization of euthanasia, such as the philosophers Peter Singer and Helga Kuhse, who embrace such arbitrariness, do so without any evident concern for the subversion of the foundations of justice which the arbitrariness entails. 4. Legalization of voluntary euthanasia would also encourage the practice of non-voluntary euthanasia without benefit of legalization This would happen in two ways: firstly, it has proved to be the case that those who begin by saying they wish to confine the practice of euthanasia to voluntary euthanasia come to think that, if that is allowed, no good reason remains for disallowing non-voluntary euthanasia, so they begin to plan for the systematic practice of non-voluntary euthanasia. This phenomenon can be seen, for example, in the behaviour of The Royal Dutch Medical Association over the past fifteen years. Having worked for the acceptance of what purported to be the 'strictly controlled' practice of voluntary euthanasia only, they are now working for the acceptance of the practice of non-voluntary euthanasia.

secondly, because the criteria for delimiting the practice of euthanasia to killing at the request of the patient prove to be irremediably imprecise. The Dutch experience has demonstrated the truth of what critics said about any legal accommodation of voluntary euthanasia (whether by statute law or by judicial decision), namely, that it would lead to the extensive practice of non-voluntary euthanasia. The available data show, on a conservative estimate, that about 1 in 12 deaths in Holland in 1990 were euthanasia deaths (10, 558 cases) and more than half of these were without explicit request. 5. Euthanasia undermines the dispositions we require in doctors and is therefore destructive of the practice of medicine The practice of medicine cannot flourish unless doctors are so disposed that they inspire trust in patients many of whom are extremely vulnerable. Doctors will not inspire trust unless patients are confident that doctors are for no reasons disposed to kill them; have no inclination to ask whether a patient is worth caring for or treating, rather than asking what care or treatment might benefit the patient. But the practice of euthanasia systematically undermines both of the required dispositions.

For it disposes doctors to kill certain of their patients, and it inculcates a disposition to think of some patients as not having worthwhile lives. Since there are no non-arbitrary criteria for determining who has and who has not a worthwhile life, the temptation to categorize the difficult and the unappealing as not having worthwhile lives is very strong for the person who has failed to eschew such discriminatory thinking as a matter of principle. It is an important part of the duty of the state to maintain a framework of law which is conducive to an essential profession such as medicine functioning well in the interests of citizens. The state would fail in that duty were the law to permit behavior on the part of doctors which was corrosive of the doctor-patient relationship. 6. The legalization of euthanasia undermines the impetus to develop truly compassionate approaches to the care of the suffering and the dying The proper expression of compassion is care motivated by a more or less strong sense of sympathy with the affliction of the person suffering. But one cannot care for people by killing them.

It is very important to bear in mind that a key element in the context of contemporary debates about legalizing euthanasia is the drive to reduce health care costs. One of the conspicuous dangers of legalization is that, before long, euthanasia would be seen as a convenient 'solution' to the heavy demands on care made by certain types of patient. Medicine would thereby be robbed of the incentive to find genuinely compassionate solutions to the difficulties presented by such patients. The kind of humane impulses which have sustained the development of hospice medicine and care would be undermined because too many would think euthanasia a cheaper and less personally demanding solution. 7. Three Committees established by English-speaking legislatures to consider proposals to legalize euthanasia have recommended that it not be legalized. 1994 - 95 saw the publication of Reports of Committees established by the House of Lords of the UK Parliament, by the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, and by the Senate of the Canadian Parliament.

All these Committees were composed of people with different views on the intrinsic morality of euthanasia, yet they were clear in opposing its legalization. For example, the House of Lords's elect Committee had among its members many who were on record as advocates of euthanasia. And yet after a year of hearing and reading an extensive body of evidence and debating the issues among themselves, they decided unanimously to recommend that euthanasia should not be legalized. There is much in all three Reports that is worthy of the attention of the Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee of the Senate of the Australian Federal Parliament.

Let the following quotation from the House of Lords's elect Committee Report stand as the epitome of the collective wisdom of these Committees: '[S]octet's prohibition of intentional killing... is the cornerstone of law and social relationships. It protects each of us impartially, embodying the belief that all are equal. We do not wish that protection to be diminished and we therefore recommend that there should be no change in the law to permit euthanasia... The death of a person affects the lives of others, often in ways and to an extent which cannot be foreseen. We believe that the issue of euthanasia is one in which the interest of the individual cannot be separated from the interest of society as a whole. ' It is the hope of the present writer that the members of the Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee will, after due consideration, associate themselves with the moral and political wisdom exhibited in this statement.


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Research essay sample on House Of Lords Voluntary Euthanasia

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