Euthanasia and Kants Morality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Euthanasia and Kants Morality - try ExampleLeg all(prenominal)y, assisted suicide has been justified on certain grounds, for example in countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and in the State of Oregon in the United States (McKean 1). This does not however change the fact that for more or less people the issue of euthanasia is fundamentally not about giving mercy. It is all the same the killing element that raises the hackles for most people. Mercy (or compassion) and killing (with an intent to kill, it can still be considered murder) are still clearly contradictory, i.e., posed in the very simplistic, yet lucid question how could you possibly help somebody you love or care about kill himself? How could mercy or love ever be allied with the destruction of life, no matter how little remains of it? The morality of any act jibe to Kants well-known adage of the categorical imperative only suffices if it can be raised as a universal law (Kant, Groundwork of The Metap hysics of Morals). To assist mortal who wants to die will almost never impel that unconditional sense of justifiedlyness, but instead the situation will almost always visit at the conditionality of how a particular situation may be acted upon. This action is the opposite of what can be found in the morality of the categorical imperative. A thing according to Kantian morality is right because it is independent of any external cause. In the case of euthanasia, the external cause takes the forms of the mercy or a sense of duty to let a soulfulness die in haughtiness, or respect the wishes of someone who wants to end his life.... sion may be high due to a seemingly hopeless situation be trusted in deciding that life is better ended Is he or she an autonomous person in this case On the other hand, can a caregiver or a indemnify with a close relationship with a terminally ill and suffering patient be looked at as unsulliedly performing a duty to respect the decision to die of someo ne he or she cares about Is it duty or is it something elseThe concept of self-reliance or the sense of freedom and the linguistic rule of duty in Kants theory of morality provide analytical tools to examine whether euthanasia is morally defensible. shore leave and dignity, which are based upon the premise that a human being is free by way of curtilage to decide on what is wrong or right, have been used to justify euthanasia. Conversely, this line of reasoning suggests that the autonomy or dignity of a patient who expresses that life-prolonging treatments or care violate his or her sense of dignity as a human being should be respected. According to Kant, men are moral beings because by virtue of being free and capable of reason. However, he qualifies the term freedom, and explains further that there is a prohibit and positive sense of freedom. He wrote, The sole principle of morality consists in the independence on all matter of the law (namely, a desired object), and in the de termination of the elective will by the mere universal legislative form of which its maxim must be capable. This independence is freedom in the nix sense, and this self-legislation of the pure, and therefore practical reason is freedom in the positive sense (Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, sustain 1, chap.1, par 85). On both counts, whether in the negative or positive sense, the patient who is supposedly the agent of a decision that would