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Autonomy and Assisted Suicide
Author(s) -
SAFRANEK JOHN P.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
hastings center report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-146X
pISSN - 0093-0334
DOI - 10.2307/3528611
Subject(s) - autonomy , personal autonomy , assisted suicide , suicide prevention , psychology , poison control , computer security , medical emergency , computer science , medicine , political science , law , psychiatry
Proponents of assisted suicide who base their arguments on autonomy err in ways that are little attended to. In the absence of a substantive theory of the good, in neither a descriptive nor an ascriptive sense can the concept of autonomy distinguish those acts that should be morally prohibited from those that may be permitted. And to impose a particular theory of the good, whether individual liberty or the sanctity of life, violates the autonomy of those who do not share a commitment to that theory.