License to kill: A new model for excusing medically assisted dying?

Résumé

Opinions understandably differ on this complex, sensitive phenomenon and specifically about the appropriateness of such killing. All too often the disputants reach a familiar crossroads: one fork points towards permission, in view of the alleged justifiability of the practice, the other towards prohibition, in view of its alleged unjustifiably. As this volume suggests, new directions of travel are needed, which are capable of leading us away from these well-trodden and entrenched paths. In this chapter, therefore, we seek to forge and explore a different path. Our exploratory model builds on an analogy with armed response police units as they operate in England, and specifically with situations in which such officers are found to have killed someone in the course of their duties. Rather than confer immunity prospectively (as proponents of assisted dying often seek) or deny immunity completely (as opponents insist), our policy would provide a potential retrospective excuse. Each set of arguments has a long history and continues to command substantial support; indeed, the to-and-fro of argument, counter-argument and counter-counter- argument appears to be unrelenting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved) ROYAUME-UNI EUROPE SUICIDE-ASSISTÉ JURIDIQUE ÉTHIQUE ARGUMENT