Life, Liberty, and the Right to Death

Be sure in your responses to reference the relevant parts of Lecture Notes 6-8. Also note that questions (a) and (b) are looking specifically for ethical, rather than factual, differences.

(a) To what extent is there a difference between murder, letting die, and hastening death? More specifically, to what extent is there an ethical difference between the removal of life-sustaining treatment on the one hand, and physician assisted suicide and active voluntary euthanasia on the other? Be sure in your responses to explain the reasoning of Rehnquist and O’Connor in Vacco v. Quill.

(b) To what extent is there an ethical difference between physician assisted suicide and active voluntary euthanasia?

(c) Should physician assisted suicide and/or active voluntary euthanasia be legal? If so, who should be eligible? Be specific in your response with respect to prognosis and age (i.e. should only those who are terminally ill be eligible? to what extent should minors be eligible?). How would you defend your position from either a utilitarian or deontological perspective?

****This is a discussion post about the attached articles. Discussion must be around 400 words, and must reference the articles provided. It should not be written as an essay, but more as separate paragraphs answering and discussing the questions, for example:
A)

B)

C)