Euthanasia And Virtue Analysis

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Introduction In this essay, I intend to assess the morality of voluntary active euthanasia through the lens of Virtue Ethics. There are four main moral commitments in bioethics; respect for autonomy, benevolence, nonmaleficence, and justice, which will be evaluated as virtues of character per the moral theory. Moral Theory

Slightly neglected in comparison to the dominance of Deontology and Consequentialism, Virtue Ethics is a third major normative concept that emphasizes the character of the moral agent as opposed to the morality of an action itself. The ideas behind Virtue Ethics first developed from the minds of the ancients; great thinkers among the likes of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle suggested that a good person who behaves …show more content…
Though our moral decisions are supposedly made using objective means, emotions are an undeniably important part of our judgement. According to Aristotle, a virtue is a commendable trait of character manifested in habitual action. In other words, virtuous behavior must be continuous and unchanging. The virtue of courage, for example, is not possessed by someone who is only occasionally courageous, but by the person who is courageous because it is part of everything they are and everything they do. Furthermore, he believed that a virtue lay in the middle of two contrary vices and described it as “the mean by reference to two vices: the one of excess and the other of deficiency”. For example, generosity falls between stinginess and extravagance, and compassion between callousness and indulgence. Finally, it is important to note that there is no set list of virtues. However, we can identify virtuous traits because they appeal to our moral motivation. We have an intrinsic knowledge of which traits make a good person, so it is natural for us to desire those traits. Though the virtues are not always the same for everyone, certain virtues are valued by all people at all times, due to what Aristotle described as our common human …show more content…
Our modern definition describes the practice of intentionally ending a patient's life in order to relieve them of terrible suffering. Also called mercy killing, or physician assisted suicide, there are a number of additional terms that must be understood when discussing euthanasia. The two main classifications are voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. The former describes a competent, consenting person who wishes to be euthanized of his or her own accord, while the latter refers to the decision to euthanize by a second party, as the recipient is unable to choose for themselves. Furthermore, there are two procedural classifications. Active euthanasia, as the name indicates, occurs when a physician (or other person) deliberately performs an action that will result in death, such as administering a lethal dose of a medication. In contrast, passive euthanasia is a product of a lack of action (witholding CPR from a patient whose heart has stopped beating) or reversal of a means of sustaining life (removing a patient's ventilator when it is known that they are unable to breathe independently). For the purposes of this discussion, I will be focusing on voluntary active
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