The Morality of Assisted Dying

• Published in: The Journal of medicine and philosophy Vol. 50; no. 4; p. 262
• Main Author: Richards, Stephen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.08.2025
• Subjects: Humans; Morals; Personal Autonomy; Personhood; Philosophy, Medical; Right to Die - ethics; Suicide, Assisted - ethics; Suicide, Assisted - psychology; autonomy; dignity; euthanasia; morality; assisted dying
• DOI: 10.1093/jmp/jhaf003

This essay analyzes the morality of assisted dying. To do this, it is necessary to recognize that assisted dying is the outworking of a larger process. This process unavoidably begins with the key moral conception of human dignity. Emphasis upon individualism in society has caused a restructuring of the dignity concept, changing what is most highly valued. This altered concept of dignity gives rise to assisted dying, yet is morally flawed. This is because it is an understanding of dignity that minimizes people's vulnerability, dismisses coercive forces that are brought into effect, encourages undue confidence in safeguards, and removes any sustained basis for respect of the individual. Autonomy, as the primary justification for assisted dying in contemporary society, is an abbreviated understanding of the restructured concept of dignity and therefore subject to the same criticisms. Assisted dying arises from a deficient and self-defeating foundation that mark it as immoral.