Assisted Dying and Legal Change - Penney Lewis

Abstract

Applied moral philosophers might and do address the question whether or not it is morally permissible for doctors to assist their patients to die. They do so by considering whether or not there is a duty to keep alive those whose continued existence is intolerably undignified, painful or distressing, and who, moreover, have repeatedly expressed a clear wish to die. If the question is settled in favour of allowing doctors to assist death in such cases, then it might seem simply to follow that the law should be changed so as to permit assisted dying. Penney Lewis' book suggests that matters are not that straightforward or clear‐cut. The book does not offer any new arguments about the moral permissibility of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Indeed, it does not engage in much if any philosophical discussion about these issues. The author displays a clear if not explicitly stated sympathy towards allowing doctors to help their terminally ill and suffering patients to die. However, her principal concern is with how particular jurisdictions might give legal effect to this moral conviction. The book, in short, is about different routes to legalization, or at least to legal reform. Lewis identifies three such routes. The first and perhaps most obvious is in terms of individual rights. The second is by means of a defence of necessity, when a person must choose between a duty to preserve life and a duty to relieve great suffering. This is the route effectively chosen by the Netherlands. The third is by means of a legal appeal to the virtue of compassion, and has been suggested as a driver of legal reform in France.