Moral & Ethical Concerns Regarding Euthanasia

Morality and ethics are often mistaken as synonymous. Morality, according to Webster (1994), encompasses the ability to make the distinction between that which is wrong and that which is right in conduct. It refers to the character of being in accord with the principles or standards of right conduct. Ethics, which Webster does subsume within the definition of morality, encapsulates a particular moral standard or system. Ethics are specific, for the most part, to a particular person, group, profession, or organization; it is socially centered and is the vehicle by means of which a set of moral standards are reinforced.

In the case of euthanasia, then, morality would refer to the rightness or wrongfulness of ending the life of a hopelessly ill or injured individual (Humphry, 20

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e between what he calls ôactiveö and ôpassiveö euthanasia. In the case of the former, a physician or other actor would deliberately undertake steps to end the life of a suffering individual. Administration of medication, or even the mere participation in preparing a patient to self-administer a medication that has the potential to end life, is an active form of euthanasia. Passive euthanasia, on the other hand, would be allowing a patient to die by withholding treatment, food, life-support technologies at the patientÆs request. Life would end, generally in a state of physical comfort achieved by the use of analgesic preparations. Spong (2000), an Episcopal Bishop, does not believe that the Judeo-Christian moral code should be understood as preventing voluntary euthanasia in both active and passive form. It believes that the end of intolerable suffering in the case of the terminally ill individual is an act of moral value and believes that the holiness of life is enhanced, and not diminished, by letting people have a say in how they die. Conversely, the Michigan Catholic Conference (2000) has argued that euthanasia is immoral and its practice unethical because it violates the biblical injunction against killing - the command
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Approximate Word count = 1635
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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