Kant And Euthanasia

The issue of allowing doctors to aid patients gain access to doctor assisted suicide, is a major issue for many people around the world as they are constantly living a life that they do not want. There are only eight countries around the world that allow doctors to assist patients with suicide, under very strict guidelines and allowing very few to use this service under supervision. This was in the case of Dan James a 23-year-old rugby player who was injured in a scrimmage, which had left him paralyzed due to a back injury. Which made him incapable of doing the most basic task such as eating food, or going to the bathroom. This made him feel as if his life was a burden for those around him, which would eventually lead him to make the decision to go and end his life using doctor assisted suicide. I agree that patients such as Dan James are morally allowed to seek doctor assisted suicide. This is view is shared by Kant in “A simplified Account of Kant’s Ethics” by Onara O’Neil. In which the view that we should …show more content…
That if we allow people to gain access to doctor assisted suicide. Which could eventually lead us down a “slippery slope that will lead to us… [Allowing] non-voluntary euthanasia” (Voluntary Euthanasia, 5-6). Allowing non-voluntary euthanasia will allow hospitals, parents, or guardian to put someone down that did not want to die, but were unable to express it due to their illness. This could be compared to the Russian Gulags or the North Korean concentration camp where people were put to death and were unable to express that they did not want to end their lives. Also, that we are unable to logically support “voluntary euthanasia while rejecting non-voluntary euthanasia is morally inappropriate” (Findler, Notes), as human beings we have a moral obligation to allow everyone to have access to euthanasia. As everyone has the right to end their