John Hardwig's Duty To Die

To Die or Not to Die, That is the Question John Hardwig’s position in his article “Is There A Duty To Die”, is that life without connection is meaningless, and that we not individuals devoid of connections, therefore, the greatest validation of our connections is through meaning in death with a duty to die. This article is written about the concept that humans may have a “duty to die”. Hardwig believes that he himself may have to face the possibility of a duty to die one day. He also believes that many of us will similarly face this dilemma. Hardwig says that the concept of duty to die raises numerous philosophical questions, however he chooses to avoid the theoretical and ethical ones, as he hopes his argument will be convincing enough to …show more content…
In aims of convincing those who read the article that they should consider that they could have a duty to die he gives plenty of acknowledgments of the natural objections one would have to the duty to die concept. This is a good technique for his goal of persuasion, as the audience more than most likely will have some of their objections to the subject addressed. His response to the objections are the most helpful in building his argument (Hardwig, John).
Many would object that the duty to die should not be connected with loved ones. Three of the main objections he states to be most common are; there is a higher duty than the duty to die, ending your own life contradicts the acknowledgement of human value, and that it is wrong to ask sick people who are already struggling with the burdens of their illness to also be burdened with ending their lives. His response is that these objections do not trump the duty to die, saying that it is ambiguous or unclear whether life is sacred and should not be taken (Hardwig, …show more content…
I am taking on the first five points or so that he makes in on this subject. In the first point Hardwig claims that the duty to die increases when choosing to live creates burdens on those around us, burdens of an emotional, financial, or even physical nature. All of these burdens are attributes we typically enter into this world with. As infants, we create similar burdens for those around us. We have similar qualities often at the beginning of our life that we have at the end of our lives, dissipating mental function, physical dependency, and simply not being autonomous. I’m not mocking these very burdens that are placed on those around us on both the beginning and ending phases of our lives, but I am stating that they should not be reasons that our duty to die should reach a stronger likelihood (Jecker, Nancy).
In Hardwig’s second point he says that our duty to die has a positive correlation with our age, meaning that as our age goes up so does or obligation to die. In addressing this point, you can’t put a marker on the timelines of life and decide certain points are more valuable than others. If we begin on this track of thinking then what is Hardwig’s definition of the quality that one can live? Why do those that get older fail in not being ready to die when they as an individual may not put a weight on the same values that Hardwig