Friday, November 3, 2017

Interview on suicide and euthanasia

Students occasionally request an interview, to fulfill a class assignment. Here are the questions submitted in a recent one:

1. The demographics and privilege of assisted suicide and euthanasia?
2. What is your opinion on assisted suicide and euthanasia?
3. Does assisted suicide and euthanasia affect the poor and elderly in a negative way?
4. Do you know the difference between the two?
5. Should people be forced to stay alive?
6. Should physicians play a roll?


And my initial responses:

1. Not sure what the question is here. I've not studied "the demographics and privilege of assisted suicide and euthanasia," sounds like something to ask a social scientist. But the word privilege suggests a concern that this is a practice not equally accessible to different socio-economic groups because only the relatively well-off can afford the time and expense of identifying and working with a willing medical practitioner. That would indeed be an ethical concern, an issue of inequity and injustice.

2. I strongly discourage suicide, but euthanasia in the case of someone experiencing severe chronic pain with no prospect of recovery is another matter. People of sound mind should not be denied the opportunity to experience a "good death," under such circumstances.

Albert Camus said the ultimate philosophical question is whether life is worth living, despite its challenges and absurdities. I agree, and I also agree with him that life is worth living... until (as in the aforementioned sort of case) it isn't.

I agree as well with Jennifer Michael Hecht:
“None of us can truly know what we mean to other people, and none of us can know what our future self will experience. History and philosophy ask us to remember these mysteries, to look around at friends, family, humanity, at the surprises life brings — the endless possibilities that living offers — and to persevere. There is love and insight to live for, bright moments to cherish, and even the possibility of happiness, and the chance of helping someone else through his or her own troubles. Know that people, through history and today, understand how much courage it takes to stay. Bear witness to the night side of being human and the bravery it entails, and wait for the sun. If we meditate on the record of human wisdom we may find there reason enough to persist and find our way back to happiness. The first step is to consider the arguments and evidence and choose to stay. After that, anything may happen. First, choose to stay.” 
― Jennifer Michael Hecht, Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It

 3. Depends on the circumstances. But since the poor and elderly are generally more likely to suffer ill health and, under our inadequate health care system are also less likely to have adequate access to health care resources and alternative treatment options, they may be more likely to turn to suicide or euthanasia out of desperation - in that case, they would not experience a "good death."

4. Euthanasia is the voluntary ending of a life (not necessarily one's own) in order to end gratuitous pain and suffering, perhaps to minimize "harm" (as in the Hippocratic Oath's injunction to "do no harm"). Suicide is the taking of one's own life, often impulsively and under duress, and thus arguably not entirely "voluntarily"...  Suicide may be precipitated by an emotional crisis, euthanasia is usually a response to physiological and medical illness. The moral difference between the two must always depend on the specific circumstances and context in which suicide/euthanasia are contemplated or enacted.

5. No. They should be encouraged to appreciate the gift of life, even a life surrounded by pain. But in the end, autonomous individuals possessed of their faculties and in a sound state of mind must be permitted their freedom.

6. Physicians should do whatever they must, to fulfill their Hippocratic Oath and alleviate pain and suffering. If they don't play a role, less qualified people - legislators, for instance - will.