The Moral Dissociation Curve, Blind Spots and Prescribing Death in Canada

Abstract

Provider assisted death is becoming a leading cause of death in Canada since the passage of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) legislation in 2016. What was to be exceptional has now become common; some are calling for it to be expected. Increasing numbers of patients with chronic, non-terminal conditions are being euthanized. Healthcare personnel are now approving and offering MAiD to vulnerable patients who are depressed, disabled, chronically ill or impoverished. This paper presents a rationale from a transcendent moral law perspective, traditionally called natural law, for why Canada now has the most liberal euthanasia regime in the world. The act of euthanasia requires the provider to willfully end the life of the patient by administering a lethal substance. This violates the transcendent moral law, do not kill. Once a culture willfully rejects this fundamental law and embraces a utilitarian ethic devoid of any principle except the notion of autonomy, it is inevitable that the practice will lead to ethical ambiguity and uncertainty. As the practice persists and becomes the norm, moral blindness develops which leads to gross abuses to human beings. I present an ethical diagram, the Moral Dissociation Curve, that depicts the reason for the trends unfolding in Canada. The Canadian healthcare system must re-affirm the principles of the Hippocratic Ethic and the inherent dignity of their patients. Those in healthcare need to prioritize high quality, compassionate, palliative care and say “no” to willfully ending the lives of suffering patients. In so doing, moral clarity will be re-gained, and society’s most vulnerable will be protected.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

Similar books and articles

Assisted death: a study in ethics and law.L. W. Sumner - 2011 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: Language Lost in MAiD.Rafal Gromadzki & Timothy Christie - 2024 - Canadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique 7 (2-3):159-165.
Regulating the End of Life: Death Rights.Sue Westwood (ed.) - 2021 - New York, NY: Routledge.

Analytics

Added to PP
2024-12-29

Downloads
13 (#1,312,648)

6 months
13 (#240,301)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?