The fundamental underpinnings of our society are based on a few core values, one of them being the right to live. The question that comes with the right to live is if we should also have the right to die? Belgium is unique in that it is one of a few countries where euthanasia, or voluntary suicide by lethal injection, is legal.
Historical Background of the Ethics Behind Euthanasia
Throughout history, our moral compass has been developing to include the concept of the “other,” as an autonomous decision-making being in and of his or her own right. In Paleolithic and Neolithic societies, people only identified with members of their own smaller groups or tribes. The ideas of brotherhood and human being did not extend to people outside their most basic unit. As history took its course and larger empires formed, there became an awareness that ethical obligation should be spread to all inhabitants of society. That moral obligation was then widened to encompass all human beings with the rise of major religions and values, like Buddhism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman Stoicism. Confucius first introduced the moral idea of the so-called “Golden Rule,” in 500 BCE, but it became more widely known, accepted, and followed when it appeared in the New Testament. In Matthew, 7:12, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye …show more content…
In 1920, Alfred Hoche and Karl Binding, two German professors, wrote a book titled, “Releasing the Destruction of Worthless Animals,” which advocated for the killing of people whose lives were “devoid of value.” This became the basis for a lot of the killing that went on under Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. They also included a section that argued for patients to be able to obtain “death assistance,” should they ask a physician for help in that
Historical Background of the Ethics Behind Euthanasia
Throughout history, our moral compass has been developing to include the concept of the “other,” as an autonomous decision-making being in and of his or her own right. In Paleolithic and Neolithic societies, people only identified with members of their own smaller groups or tribes. The ideas of brotherhood and human being did not extend to people outside their most basic unit. As history took its course and larger empires formed, there became an awareness that ethical obligation should be spread to all inhabitants of society. That moral obligation was then widened to encompass all human beings with the rise of major religions and values, like Buddhism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman Stoicism. Confucius first introduced the moral idea of the so-called “Golden Rule,” in 500 BCE, but it became more widely known, accepted, and followed when it appeared in the New Testament. In Matthew, 7:12, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye …show more content…
In 1920, Alfred Hoche and Karl Binding, two German professors, wrote a book titled, “Releasing the Destruction of Worthless Animals,” which advocated for the killing of people whose lives were “devoid of value.” This became the basis for a lot of the killing that went on under Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. They also included a section that argued for patients to be able to obtain “death assistance,” should they ask a physician for help in that