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pubmed:otherAbstract |
KIE: The renewed interest in active euthanasia and assisted suicide has occured in response to the power of medicine to extend life under poor circumstances and to impose aggressive, often unremitting treatment that appears unstoppable. A dampening of the push for medical progress and a willingness to accept death as part of the human condition will be necessary in order to oppose the growing impulse to legalize euthanasia. Two arguments in support of active euthanasia are analyzed and refuted: the claim that autonomy and patient rights extend as far as the right to be killed on request, and the assertion that the traditional distinction between killing and allowing to die is no longer valid.
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