Freedom and euthanasia

Question

A person is better off when free - if follow it to particular issue of individual freedom like euthanasia as Some of the developed country follow this principle ? What are the issues if we follow these things in under developed and developing countries? In this sense, euthanasia morality is subject to circumstances?

Answer 1

Your question takes for granted a confused and dangerous idea about liberty. Euthanasia occurs where person A judges that person B's life is not worth living, and person A kills person B. So the freedom to enage in euthanasia is the freedom to kill another person under some set of circumstances you haven't clearly explained.

There are problems with the idea that euthanasia should be legal.

First, would legal euthanasia require the consent of person B? If so, how should that consent be recorded? How can you exclude the possibility that a person consents to be euthanised and then changes his mind? If the victim of this procedure changes his mind and you have evidence of consent, then once person A kills him there may not be any witnesses to his lack of consent. And if euthanasia doesn't require consent then you have given a privileged class of euthanisers a right to commit murder.

Second, why can't person B just kill himself? Current law makes it difficult for a person to kill himself. The easiest and least painful means of killing yourself involves taking drugs which can only be obtained with a prescription. So then you either have to lie successfully to a doctor to get the drugs, or buy them illegally. And if you get caught trying to commit suicide you will be imprisoned in a mental hospital and possibly drugged without your consent. You won't get a trial or any opportunity to defend yourself, but you will be treated as a criminal de facto if not de jure. So then why do you propose to increase freedom by giving certain privileged people the right to kill others? Why not get rid of legal obstacles to killing yourself and then see what problems remain?

If you want to clarify your thinking about these issues I suggest reading "Fatal Freedom: The Ethics and Politics of Suicide" and "Suicide Prohibition: The Shame of Medicine" by Thomas Szasz.