Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
50Extract 4: Michael Wilcockson, ‘Euthanasia and Doctor’s Ethics’
(1999)
Taken from: Issues of Life and Death by Mic hael Wilc oc kson (Hodder, 1999),
Chapter 4, Euthanasia and Doc tors’ Ethic s, pp.56–69.
- Good or bad medical practice?
A ‘third party’ in law refers to any agent other than the princ ipal agent and in the
case of euthanasia this would generally mean a doctor (sometimes also referred to
as the ‘physic ian’). For all prac t ic al purposes if eut hanasia is t o be just ified at all it
has to be considered as part of medical practice, for it is reasonably clear that any
ot her prac t ic e of eut hanasia would be almost impossible t o c ont rol or regulate.
Wit hout regulat ion soc iet y would permit killing or murder and what ever moral c ode
one adopts would be regarded as untenable. The c onsideration of ‘euthanasia’, at
present , is right ly a medic al issue. Put simply it is t his: should a doc t or kill his
patients in some c irc umstanc es?
T he offic ial posit ion of t he Brit ish Medic al Assoc iat ion, for inst anc e, suggest s t hat
there is a great deal of difference between actively terminating life and treating a
patient in a manner whic h may in the end result in death.
In its ethical advice the BMA emphasises that it is the duty of a doctor to
ensure t hat a pat ient dies wit h dignit y and as lit t le suffering as possible but
recommends that active intervention to terminate life – t hat is, where drugs are
given or ot her procedures, carried out in order to cause death – even at the request
of a pat ient , should remain illegal.
T he Right s and Responsibilit ies of Doc t ors (1992), p.77
a) Moral crisis in liberal societies
Why does the issue of euthanasia (and abortion) c ause suc h heated debate at
present? Pet er Singer has argued (1994) t hat West ern liberal soc iet ies are going
through a transitional stage in ethic s at present where the authority of the
t radit ional ‘Sanc t it y of Life’ argument (SOL) is giving way t o t he liberal ‘Quality of
Life’ argument (QOL). The liberal influenc e has already been seen in many ac ts of
legislat ion, not ably in t he c ase of suic ide, where t he princ iple of personal aut onomy
is t he fundament al princ iple underpinning moral and legal dec isions. Singer
suggests that the SOL belongs to an older more absolute value view of life but with
t he demise of Christ ianit y t he philosophic al basis whic h est ablishes life as a gift
from God or part of a Natural Law c an no longer be sensibly sustained. So, while
the c hangeover t akes plac e there will be those who strenuously wish to oppose
what they see as a corrosive force. Whilst Singer’s argument may have muc h more
t o c o mme nd it we should also bear in mind that the SOL as muc h as the QOL
argument both have to c ontend with the inc reasing t ec hnologic al and medic al
c omplexit y. Whereas in the past pneumonia was c onsidered to be the old person’s
friend or a severely brain-damaged c hild would have died through natural c auses,
the doc tor now has the means to sustain a life whic h in t he past simply would not
have been a possibilit y. Whilst t he moral basis for sust aining life and allowing deat h
is in t ransit ion, t he medic al profession and legislat ors will c ont inue t o inspire st rong
reac t ions.