Double Effect Law Essay

A similar parallel can be drawn between the right to autonomy or self-determination and euthanasia or more specifically the right to death with dignity.
Cahill points in her book that many people who choose the right to death with dignity, are elderly, abandoned by their families and who feel that they are becoming only a burden to their loved ones. A major part that plays a role in choosing voluntary death is a financial strain and the inability to afford proper care. Many of the people who chose to die are elderly suffering with various diseases associated with advanced age, and the terminally ill. The first, often live alone forgotten by their loved ones who are busy living their lives, focused on their children, spouses, and careers. The …show more content…
I can appreciate the struggles to arrive at an acceptable solution without violating the values of the Church as well as moral and ethical norms prevailing in health care. However, I have a difficulty accepting death resulting from the application of the "double effect" principle that is preferred by the Christian institutions over intentional and purposeful action to end one 's life. The " double effect law" accepts the death of a patient caused by purposeful administrations of sedatives to relieve pain, to be without evil, even though the person administering the medications knew that it will result in the patient 's death. Here, the intention to relief suffering outweighs and is disproportionally larger than the action that it caused; the patient 's death. I struggle to determine the nuances separating death from euthanasia and death caused by the application of the principle. In both cases the final result was death, in both cases, the intention was the relief of suffering and in both cases, the person administering the medication was aware of the consequences. Such practices, in my opinion, reflect covert ambivalence to choose one practice over the