Euthanasia: Morality and Divine Command Theory
The selected moral topic that I chose for this semester is Euthanasia. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, Euthanasia can be defined as “the act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment. (Mifflin, 1992) ” Euthanasia raises a Moral Dilemma. “A Moral Dilemma is a situation, in theory or practice, that forces an individual group to choose between two (equally) important values and, whichever side one chooses, one loses something.” One of the values that the author identifies is life. He says that “The person who causes his or her own death repudiates (or rejects) the meaningfulness and worth of his or her own life. To decide to initiate an act that has as its primary purpose to end one’s life is to decide that life has no worth to anyone, especially to oneself. It is an act that ends all choices regarding what one’s life and whatever is left of it is to symbolize (Dyck, 2008).” In this report on Euthanasia, though Ethical Relativist say that Euthanasia is right, the Divine Command Theory and Ethical Egoist say that the practice of Euthanasia is neither right nor wrong. The Method of “Synthetic Assimilation” “seeks to learn from what the ten main moral theories have to tell us and seeks to create a unified and well-formed approach to moral reflection and action. The method contrasts with the “either/or” approach.” “The Method of Synthetic Assimilation allows you to see that there are various reasons for holding to certain views of right and wrong.” The structure of moral reasoning starts off with the General Moral Principle. The part of the structure of moral reasoning is the Factual Claim. Finally, the third part is the Derivative Moral Theory. Applying Ethical Relativism to Euthanasia: The formal argument that cultural relativist would use in delivering the morality of Euthanasia would most
Cited: Dyck, A. J. (2008). Morality and Moral Controversies. Pearson Prentice Hall . Mifflin, H. (1992). The American Heritage Dictionary. Mortimer, R. (1950). In Christian Ethics (pp. 7-8). London, England: Hutchinson 's University Library. Unknown. (n.d.). Gallup Organization. Retrieved from ProCon: www.procon.com