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The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress

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'Total disability' and the wrongness of killing.

Adam Omelianchuk

Journal of Medical Ethics

|October 18, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The wrongness of killing may not apply to totally disabled patients, according to Sinnott-Armstrong and Miller. However, this argument is challenged due to ambiguity in defining total disability and its relevance to personhood and human worth.

Keywords:

Death Killing Life Persons Transplantation

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Area of Science:

Bioethics
Philosophy of Medicine

Background:

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Franklin G Miller propose that the harm to the victim is the primary reason killing is wrong.
They suggest 'total disability' defines this harm, implying killing totally disabled patients is not immoral.

Purpose of the Study:

To critically evaluate the argument that killing totally disabled patients is not wrong.
To examine the ambiguity of 'total disability' and its implications for personhood and human worth.

Main Methods:

Conceptual analysis of the term 'total disability'.
Philosophical critique of the harm-based explanation for the wrongness of killing.
Examination of the relationship between disability, personhood, and human worth.

Main Results:

The notion of 'total disability' as presented is ambiguous.
The argument potentially begs the question regarding residual abilities relevant to personhood and human worth.
If abilities relevant to personhood remain, death entails a greater loss than 'total disability'.

Conclusions:

The harm-based explanation for the wrongness of killing may be insufficient when applied to 'total disability'.
Further clarification on 'total disability' is needed to assess its ethical implications.
The argument's validity hinges on whether 'total disability' is equivalent to death.