A journalist once asked me what I thought would be the major issues for ethics in the future. I responded, spontaneously, with three words: “complexity; uncertainty; potentiality”. My statement surprised me, as I had no idea where it came from or even what it might mean in relation to ethical analysis. Since then, I’ve pondered the latter.
Continue reading Complexity, uncertainty and potentiality in the euthanasia debate:Assisted suicide laws are universally flawed because they fail to account for the fact that terminal illness diagnoses are sometimes a mistake.
Continue reading 7 Years Ago, Doctors Gave Mom Days to Live. Assisted Suicide Would Have Made That TrueRight to die, euthanasia, dying with dignity, assisted suicide: the language around this debate is enormously loaded, and shapes the way we feel about it.
Continue reading Language as a battlefield: How we got from euthanasia to voluntary assisted dyingThe gold standard for human experimentation is a randomly-assigned double-blind placebo-controlled study. Unfortunately, organising such a study to assess the effectiveness of the lethal medications used for executions in the United States and for physician-assisted suicide (PAS) has significant ethical issues. We need to rely upon historical data.
Continue reading Will assisted suicide always provide a quick and gentle death?As early as 1993 we were warned that assisted suicide would lead conjoining organ donation with euthanasia “as a plumb to society.” That is happening now in Netherlands and Belgium–including of people with mental illnesses, no less.
Continue reading Opening Door to Assisted Suicide Organ Donors