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Autonomy as the sole justification for assisted death?
1Department of Bioethics, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Abstract:
The most common justification for euthanasia and/or assisted suicide (EAS) appeals to the public's compassion for the medically ill. But a medical suffering-based EAS regime raises equality concerns - from those who do not want EAS but resent being deemed to have lives not worth living, from those who find death by EAS more accessible than basic resources that would help them go on living, and from those who want EAS but are deemed to have the wrong kind of suffering. Making EAS illegal for all would solve the equality problem, but many instead seek to ground EAS on autonomy only, with no other eligibility requirement. But autonomy-only EAS law will still create stigma and discrimination, and prioritize EAS over justice. The recent German Federal Constitutional Court's ruling establishing autonomy-only EAS, while legally significant, leaves key normative questions unanswered.
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