Thursday, July 03, 2008

The slippery slope with euthanasia

In Germany, a right-to-die activist has assisted in the suicide of a healthy 79 year old woman. The woman wanted to kill herself to avoid being placed in a nursing home.

This post and the previous one are cross-posted from my online bioethics classes. I try to emphasize to all my classes that slipper slope arguments are sometimes legitimate. They are legitimate if the slope really is slippery and the bottom of the slope really is unacceptable. These are questions you really need to ask yourself when it comes to the euthanasia debate.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rob - I hope you also explain to your students that slippery slopes can be safely traversed if one has the proper equipment (crampons, guidelines, etc.).

Anonymous said...

They are legitimate if the slope really is slippery and the bottom of the slope really is unacceptable.

Or rather: If the bottom of the slope is more unacceptable than the top.