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Full Idea
It is often suggested that medical intervention which goes beyond easing pain or distress is not saving life but 'prolonging the act of dying'.
Gist of Idea
Maybe extreme treatment is not saving life, but prolonging the act of dying
Source
Jonathan Glover (Causing Death and Saving Lives [1977], §15.6)
Book Ref
Glover,Jonathan: 'Causing Death and Saving Lives' [Penguin 1982], p.197
A Reaction
This is an important idea to keep in mind, but still a very difficult call to make. It needs to be presented to those who fight for life, at any cost in money, time, medical resources, or suffering. May people probably give up unnecessarily.
| 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] |