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Full Idea
Voluntary euthanasia is done at the request of the person themselves. Involuntary euthanasia is killing someone in their own interests, but disregarding views they could express. Non-voluntary euthanasia is killing someone who cannot express any views.
Gist of Idea
Euthanasia is voluntary (patient's wish), or involuntary (ignore wish), or non-voluntary (no wish possible)
Source
Jonathan Glover (Causing Death and Saving Lives [1977], §15.1)
Book Ref
Glover,Jonathan: 'Causing Death and Saving Lives' [Penguin 1982], p.191
A Reaction
Seems a clear and satisfactory distinction, despite the possibility of borderline cases. A look of pain on a face? An inarticulate person? Deliberate ambiguity? Misunderstanding?
| 7253 | In Utopia, legal euthanasia is considered honourable [More,T] |
| 4050 | We only allow voluntary euthanasia to someone who is both sane and crazed by pain [Kamisar] |
| 4051 | People will volunteer for euthanasia because they think other people want them dead [Kamisar] |
| 4681 | The Nazi mass murders seem to have originated in their euthanasia programme [Glover] |
| 4683 | Involuntary euthanasia is wrong because it violates autonomy, and it has appalling side-effects [Glover] |
| 4682 | Euthanasia is voluntary (patient's wish), or involuntary (ignore wish), or non-voluntary (no wish possible) [Glover] |
| 4684 | Maybe extreme treatment is not saving life, but prolonging the act of dying [Glover] |
| 4053 | If it is desirable that a given patient die, then moral objections to killing them do not apply [Rachels] |
| 4052 | It has become normal to consider passive euthanasia while condemning active euthanasia [Rachels] |
| 20882 | Euthanasia may not involve killing, so it is 'killing or not saving, out of concern for that person' [Hooker,B] |
| 20885 | Euthanasia is active or passive, and voluntary, non-voluntary or involuntary [Hooker,B] |