Lives Not Worth Living in Modern Euthanasia Regimes

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Disability Studies
• Medical Ethics

Background:

• The "Quiet Progress of the New Eugenics" (QPNE) suggests current practices like euthanasia and/or assisted suicide (EAS) for disabled newborns imply some disabled lives are not worth living.
• This commentary extends the QPNE's analysis to voluntary EAS for unbearable suffering.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the societal valuation of disabled lives within voluntary EAS for unbearable suffering.
• To argue that both historical and modern EAS regimes create a class of individuals whose lives are deemed not worth living by society.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical analysis and ethical argumentation.
• Extension of existing critical analysis on eugenics and EAS.

Main Results:

• Voluntary EAS for unbearable suffering raises questions about the societal value placed on disabled lives.
• Both old and modern EAS regimes contribute to a societal perception that certain lives are not worth living.
• The public goals of suffering relief and autonomous choice in modern EAS obscure, but do not eliminate, this devaluation.

Conclusions:

• Modern EAS regimes, while distinct from eugenics and voluntary, result in lives being societally deemed not worth living.
• The ethical frameworks surrounding EAS require deeper public discussion regarding the value of disabled lives.