Euthanasia
The question I shall be looking at is the modern meaning of euthanasia instead of the original Greek meaning ‘good or pleasant death’ (ref). Nowadays, euthanasia has come to mean ‘the painless killing of men and women to end their sufferings’, and it is often referred to as mercy killing (ref). Euthanasia has classified into five main categories and in Hastening Death article, the authors clearly listed out all the types, including active or passive and voluntary, involuntary or nonvoluntary. And in Liang’s case, I will put it under the active nonvoluntary euthanasia umbrella. It was because Liang is the son, someone other than the dying individual, who committed an act, electrocuted his mother, Ms Zhang, with the intention of ending that individual’s life, that is active killing of his mother with intention. Euthanasia performed actively when Liang’s mother, the individual who was unable to consent, was in a comatose state after her stroke, that is ‘mercy killing’ was performed nonvoluntarily (ref). Non-voluntary implies that there is no vulantariness in the sense that the patient is not capable of either denying or giving consent (as in the case of the permanently comatose or brain-injured patient) (ref). This
This rights view of the wrongness of killing is not, of course, universally shared. ‘Many people’s moral views about killing have their origins in religious views that human life comes from God and cannot be justifiably destroyed or taken away, either by the person whose life it is or by another.’ But in a pluralistic society, that a number of groups belong to different races or have different political or religious beliefs, with a strong commitment to freedom of religion, public policy should not be grounded in religious beliefs which many in the society reject (ref). People have their autonomy in choosing their beliefs and in Liang’ case, since it took place in Mainland China, which happens to be with no religious background and advocates for Atheism, theological theory cannot be justified. I would like to look into the reasons why Liang chose to kill his mother, as I am quite sure that he knew the consequences when he committed his act. Now, comes to Liang’s case that took place in Mainland China. Clearly, Liang deliberately killed his mother, a comatose stroke patient without say to her death. Although the court did not query Liang intention, as mentions in the article, ‘the Minxing District Court never doubted Liang loved his mother or believed that he was acting out of malice.’, Liang was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment (ref). Liang expressed that he just wanted to do right for her mother, and I think paternalism is quite suitable to interpret his act. Paternalism, derived from the best interest, allows one to make decisions for another. In the bioethics literature, paternalism defined as ‘the interference with a person’s li
Some topics in this essay:
District Court,
Ten Commandments,
Ms Zhang,
Surely Liang’s,
Liang’s Deontology,
,
Hastening Death,
Mainland China,
China Liang,
Christians Jews,
liang’s mother,
ref liang,
comatose stroke,
kill mother,
active passive voluntary,
religious beliefs,
mainland china,
5 imprisonment,
ms zhang,
committed act,
voluntary involuntary nonvoluntary,
decided kill mother,
passive voluntary involuntary,
justified reasons,
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Approximate Word count = 1121
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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