Physician Assisted Suicide Case Study

In this essay, it will be argued that there is a moral difference between active and passive euthanasia. The distinction is that active euthanasia is the direct involvement of action that cause someone to die. However, passive euthanasia is the inaction of allowing someone to die by not doing something that would prolong the patient’s life. I cannot agree with James Rachel argument of “the bare difference between killing and letting die does not, in itself, make a moral difference,” because killing in active euthanasia and letting one die in passive euthanasia can be differentiate in the notion of the principle cause, intent, and motive of the action vs inaction (Vaughn, 2017). The moral difference between active and passive euthanasia is …show more content…
It is also argued that there is a distinction between “intending someone’s death and not intending but foreseeing it” (Vaughn, 2017). In active euthanasia, the physician is intending the patient death from the prescription pills or the injection of drugs. However, in passive euthanasia, the physician is not intending for death upon the patient. Instead, the physician only foresees the patient’s pending death as unfortunate side of effect of this situation. The physician does not intent death upon the patient, but rather understand that it is a possibility in the near future for the …show more content…
In the doctrine of double effects of Thomas Aquinas, “An action is permissible to cause harm if it is unavoidable while pursuing the greater good” (Vaughn, 2017). From this principle, we learn that we ought to avoid doing harm to others such as killing in active euthanasia. But in passive euthanasia, physicians are trying to achieve the greater good desired by the patient. The motivation for the physician for withholding treatment is the respect for the patient’s autonomy and right to self-determination, including the decision of how he or she wants to end their