Tracey Latimer's Argumentative Analysis

Canada, like many other countries, embraces a liberal democracy social system, putting an importance on the promotion of civil liberty, equality, and community. Our country is widely viewed as an exemplar of liberalism, which strongly emphasizes choice and autonomy as fundamental principles for each individual. The state promotes the ideology that an individual’s life belongs only to them, that each individual has the right to their own means and ends, along with the right to make decisions, free from government or societal intervention, with regards to his or her own self. This liberalist viewpoint is of particular importance with regards to the medical system. As a result of individual liberty, there is intended freedom within the medical …show more content…
Under these conditions, euthanasia would not be extended to patients who were never competent, without the ability for autonomy. This becomes morally difficult with cases such as Tracey Latimer’s, a severely physical and mentally disabled woman, whose non-voluntary assisted death was performed by her father. Though Tracy suffered physically from a variety of symptoms caused by her severe cerebral palsy and brain damage, the decision of terminating her life was not her own, and therefore would be classified as non-voluntary, and not medically approved. Since every individual has a right to their own end, this being in accordance with the Kantian view, any decision they make, such as the decision to end life is their own. The decision to terminate another’s life made by an outside party would violate this right. In the situation of Tracy Latimer, her life should have been preserved, since it was unknown what her opinion was regarding her disability, the pain she suffered, and whether she would have thought her life was worth living or not. It was a violation of her rights for another individual to make decisions for her when it came to preserving or ending her life. Therefore, in cases in which the patient is severely disabled and is suffering from intense pain, it would still be unacceptable to make the judgement that his or her life is not worth living. Also in cases such as severely disabled infants and/or adults born with a disability that inhibits competency, autonomy is never developed. Since autonomy is never fully developed, euthanasia would not be an available medical treatment option. It is important to note however, that in situations where the patient does not have the conscious ability to give consent, but has made previous indications to the doctors that the termination