Bioethics 22 (5):278–285 (2008)
Abstract |
In some medical cases there is a moral distinction between killing and letting die, but in others there is not. In this paper I present an original and principled account of the moral distinction between killing and letting die. The account provides both an explanation of the moral distinction and an explanation for why the distinction does not always hold. If these explanations are correct, the moral distinction between killing and letting die must be taken seriously in medical contexts. Defeasibly, when an agent kills she takes responsibility, but when an agent lets die she does not take responsibility. Therein lies the moral distinction between killing and letting die. The distinction, however, is defeated when an agent is already responsible for the surrounding situation. In such cases, killing does not involve taking any further responsibility and letting die does not avoid taking any responsibility. Medical examples are frequently complicated because patients' autonomous choices impact upon medical practitioners' surrounding responsibility
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Keywords | end of life responsibility Killing letting die |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2008.00616.x |
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References found in this work BETA
Why Does Removing Machines Count as “Passive” Euthanasia?Patrick D. Hopkins - 1997 - Hastings Center Report 27 (3):29-37.
Killing and Letting Die: The Similarity Criterion.Joachim Asscher - 2007 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 24 (3):271–282.
Are 'Killing' and 'Letting Die' Adequately Specified Moral Categories?Michael Philips - 1985 - Philosophical Studies 47 (1):151 - 158.
Citations of this work BETA
Withholding and Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatment: Ethically Equivalent?Lars Øystein Ursin - 2019 - American Journal of Bioethics 19 (3):10-20.
Assisted Suicide and the Killing of People? Maybe. Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Killing of Patients? No: The Rejection of Shaw's New Perspective on Euthanasia.H. V. McLachlan - 2010 - Journal of Medical Ethics 36 (5):306-309.
Getting Real About Killing and Allowing to Die: A Critical Discussion of the Literature.Andrew Stumpf & Dominic Rogalski - 2021 - Canadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique 4 (2).
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