Killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics
James Rachels’s distinction between killing and letting die maintains that there is morally no difference between killing a terminally ill patient and letting him/her die. Therefore, active and passive euthanasia dichotomy is a distinction without a difference. Hence, if passive euthanasia is allowe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IIUM Press
2011
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| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/17282/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/17282/1/Killing_and_Letting_Die_An_Irrelevant_Distinction_to_Bioethics.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848778018857680896 |
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| author | Malik, Mohammad Manzoor |
| author_facet | Malik, Mohammad Manzoor |
| author_sort | Malik, Mohammad Manzoor |
| building | IIUM Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | James Rachels’s distinction between killing and letting die maintains that there is morally no difference between killing a terminally ill patient and letting him/her die. Therefore, active and passive euthanasia dichotomy is a distinction without a difference. Hence, if passive euthanasia is allowed, active euthanasia should be permitted too. The paper demonstrated that the distinction between killing and letting die is: (1) irrelevant to euthanasia(2) extraneous to the medical profession, and (3) methodologically degressive. Furthermore, the paper demonstrated invalidity of the bare difference argument of Rachels based on the distinction because of four reasons: (1) irrelevance to American Medical Association’s statement; (2) differences between the cases such as intentionality, causality, and agency; (3) straw man fallacy, (4) and weak analogy. Therefore, the paper concluded that relating the distinction between killings and letting die to bioethics and euthanasia is unjustifiable. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T14:55:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | iium-17282 |
| institution | International Islamic University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T14:55:13Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | IIUM Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | iium-172822012-01-30T00:56:50Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/17282/ Killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics Malik, Mohammad Manzoor BJ1725 Ethics of social groups, classes, etc. Professional ethics RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine James Rachels’s distinction between killing and letting die maintains that there is morally no difference between killing a terminally ill patient and letting him/her die. Therefore, active and passive euthanasia dichotomy is a distinction without a difference. Hence, if passive euthanasia is allowed, active euthanasia should be permitted too. The paper demonstrated that the distinction between killing and letting die is: (1) irrelevant to euthanasia(2) extraneous to the medical profession, and (3) methodologically degressive. Furthermore, the paper demonstrated invalidity of the bare difference argument of Rachels based on the distinction because of four reasons: (1) irrelevance to American Medical Association’s statement; (2) differences between the cases such as intentionality, causality, and agency; (3) straw man fallacy, (4) and weak analogy. Therefore, the paper concluded that relating the distinction between killings and letting die to bioethics and euthanasia is unjustifiable. IIUM Press 2011-12 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/17282/1/Killing_and_Letting_Die_An_Irrelevant_Distinction_to_Bioethics.pdf Malik, Mohammad Manzoor (2011) Killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics. Journal of Islam in Asia, S.Iss (4). pp. 383-396. ISSN 1823-0970 (In Press) http://www.iium.edu.my/jiasia/ojs-2.2/index.php/Islam |
| spellingShingle | BJ1725 Ethics of social groups, classes, etc. Professional ethics RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine Malik, Mohammad Manzoor Killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics |
| title | Killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics |
| title_full | Killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics |
| title_fullStr | Killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics |
| title_short | Killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics |
| title_sort | killing and letting die: an irrelevant distinction to bioethics |
| topic | BJ1725 Ethics of social groups, classes, etc. Professional ethics RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine |
| url | http://irep.iium.edu.my/17282/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/17282/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/17282/1/Killing_and_Letting_Die_An_Irrelevant_Distinction_to_Bioethics.pdf |