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What makes killing wrong?

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong1, Franklin G Miller

  • 1Department of Philosophy and Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. ws66@duke.edu

Journal of Medical Ethics
|January 24, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Killing is morally wrong due to the loss of all abilities, not just life. This challenges the dead donor rule in organ transplantation, suggesting current practices align with ethical considerations for irreversibly disabled patients.

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Area of Science:

  • Bioethics
  • Moral Philosophy
  • Medical Ethics

Background:

  • The moral wrongness of killing is often attributed to the loss of life or consciousness.
  • Current medical practices, particularly organ transplantation, rely on the dead donor rule.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a new ethical framework for understanding the moral wrongness of killing.
  • To re-evaluate the ethical permissibility of current organ transplantation practices.

Main Methods:

  • Philosophical analysis of the concept of 'abilities' in moral decision-making.
  • Application of the proposed ethical framework to hypothetical and real-world cases, including organ transplantation.

Main Results:

  • The moral wrongness of killing stems from the loss of all remaining abilities, not merely life or consciousness.
  • Patients with universal and irreversible disabilities lack abilities, thus their killing is not even pro tanto morally wrong.
  • The proposed ethical account is compatible with current vital organ transplantation practices, despite undermining the dead donor rule.

Conclusions:

  • A revised understanding of moral wrongness in killing, focused on ability loss, offers a new ethical perspective.
  • This framework supports the ethical compatibility of vital organ transplantation with current practices.
  • The dead donor rule may not be a necessary ethical prerequisite for organ transplantation under this framework.