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8 - The state of wellbeing: on the end-of-life care and euthanasia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2010

Irina Pollard
Affiliation:
Macquarie University, Sydney
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Summary

Caring control takes place when medical professionals or public health authorities refuse to act according to the patient's wishes, or they restrict the patient's freedom or in other ways attempt to influence the patient's behavior, allegedly in the patient's own best interest.

The previous chapter focused on the biological basis of happiness and wellbeing; this chapter focuses on justice and freedom when the process of dying has already begun. Freedom can be seen as the ability to decide for ourselves what happens in our lives without excessive constraints; that is, being in control. Of course, as social creatures, we are never totally free, even when we are not actively hindered from doing what we wish to do. The defining attributes of freedom have always collided with age-old debates on the meaning and value of human life which, in the contemporary context, have fuelled passionate discourse about the significance of abortion and euthanasia. Many contend that it is morally wrong to terminate an unwanted pregnancy or to give a lethal injection to a terminally ill patient who wishes to die expeditiously and without excessive pain. In the latter context, the act of euthanasia is understood as termination of life on request. Pro-life proponents see euthanasia as violating the principle of the sanctity of human life. Others maintain that such an inflexible stance is socially destabilizing because it is based on doubtful ethical principles and inaccurate understanding of the power of modern medicine.

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Bioscience Ethics , pp. 135 - 144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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