2025/01/01 by Gabriel Moens · 1 voice
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare #Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies #Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues
paper · pdf · doi:10.55803/v092f
openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/11/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/07
The eminent bioethicist John Fleming has noted that ‘much of the contemporary push for legalised voluntary euthanasia is predicated on the idea that there are lives not worthy of being lived and that individuals should have the right to end their lives with the assistance of the medical profession when those individuals judge that their lives are no longer of benefit to them or to others but are, rather, a burden’.1 The challenging nature of this statement invites people to soberly and objectively reflect on the confronting issue of euthanasia, also known as Voluntary Assisted Dying (‘VAD’). In this paper, I will argue that VAD, in seeking to control how people die, constitutes a repudiation of the ‘sanctity of life’ principle, which is the sine qua non of all human rights, including freedom of religion.