Deciding The Right Of Individual Determination

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Deciding the Right of Individual Determination
In the essays “The Ethics of Euthanasia” and “Moral Dilemma”, the authors discuss the problems medicine present us by having the capacity to extend life far beyond its natural course. Defining life as individuals having the opportunity to make meaning out of their existence raises immediate problems. At what point does an individual lose the opportunity to act on their desires? Who decides when an individual no longer has the opportunity for autonomy and bodily integrity, each individual, the government, or the medical community? In describing situations in which the right of individual determination is questioned, the authors lean toward the position that individuals should determine the best course of action for themselves.
In “The Ethics of Euthanasia” Lawrence J. Schneiderman discusses how physicians face the ethical dilemma of being committed to preserving life at all costs. As a medical ethicist, Schneiderman plays the Devil’s Advocate to his physicians (Para 4). He appeals to their compassionate side by asking who has thought of “alleviating the suffering of patients with death?” and in the same breath claiming, he can offer no legal immunity. This comment gives a glimpse of Schneiderman’s opposition of outsiders determining the rights of individuals.
Schneiderman take a less subtle stance by equating euthanasia with the negative Nazi connotation. He explains the horrors committed to the Jews as debasing death questioning if American physicians are any different for the atrocities they have committed (Para 6-7). He doubts the ability of the law taking each case independently making the criteria for ending someone’s life subject to a checklist. The euthanasia debate is complicated because it is based on abstractions. Schneiderman uses the word “community” equating it with human feeling and “state” with totalitarianism equating politics (Para 17). Sch...