<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In recent years, debates about euthanasia and assisted suicide have increased to the point that now, many people defend the recognition of the right to die, the right for people to decide upon the end of their life. Consistently, advocates fight to legalise practices such as euthanasia to guarantee patients’ possibility to die when they request it. In this paper, I review two of the strongest arguments invoked by proponents of physician-assisted suicide: the argument for compassion and the argument for dignity. The focus of this paper is to propose a review of these arguments through the lens of virtue ethics to inform the debate on physician-assisted suicide and question the relevance of such arguments for the legalisation of that right that would greatly ease the possibilities to end the life of a patient asking for it.</p></abstract>

In recent years, debates about euthanasia and assisted suicide have increased to the point that now, many people defend the recognition of the right to die, the right for people to decide upon the end of their life. Consistently, advocates fight to legalise practices such as euthanasia to guarantee patients’ possibility to die when they request it. In this paper, I review two of the strongest arguments invoked by proponents of physician-assisted suicide: the argument for compassion and the argument for dignity. The focus of this paper is to propose a review of these arguments through the lens of virtue ethics to inform the debate on physician-assisted suicide and question the relevance of such arguments for the legalisation of that right that would greatly ease the possibilities to end the life of a patient asking for it.

To live is to die: A virtue account of arguments for the right to die

Ethics & Bioethics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"To live is to die: A virtue account of arguments for the right to die"}

In recent years, debates about euthanasia and assisted suicide have increased to the point that now, many people defend the recognition of the right to die,...

To live is to die: A virtue account of arguments for the right to die

Published Online: Jun 12, 2020

Page range: 20 - 29

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2020-0007

Keywords
compassion, dignity, right to die, virtue ethics, physician-assisted suicide

© 2020 Franlu Vulliermet, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

To live is to die: A virtue account of arguments for the right to die

Published Online: Jun 12, 2020

Page range: 20 - 29

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2020-0007

Keywordscompassion, dignity, right to die, virtue ethics, physician-assisted suicide

© 2020 Franlu Vulliermet, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
compassion, dignity, right to die, virtue ethics, physician-assisted suicide