Abstract
Suffering, authenticity, and physician assisted suicide
Highlights
These lines in the Hippocratic Oath seem clear enough
In Lev Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Iljitj, the terminally ill protagonist screams during several days out of pure desperation, when, a young man appears and with his words and his presence manages to give peace to the tormented soul (Tolstoy 1887). If such endeavors are unsuccessful persons may die in agony and despair
One is that prognosis for both remaining life time and the possibility of new options appearing for remedy and alleviation are by necessity uncertain factors. This critique implies that persons who could have received support to help them want to live, or who might have passed into a better situation, instead are invited to take their lives
Summary
These lines in the Hippocratic Oath seem clear enough. The oath prohibits physicians to facilitate for their ill patients to take their lives. The tendency over time is so clear that the conclusion can hardly be questioned This has been followed by a legislative shift in country after country, making the right to some kind of medically assisted shortening of life for seriously ill persons on their request more common. Ahlzen that triumphs over the duty to relieve suffering, and if this cannot be done in any other way, the shortening of life is ethically acceptable, or even mandatory Arguments against this position assert that dignity can be restored, that human dignity may remain in bodily decay and dependency and that assuming terminal illness to be undignified may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. What we will explore is how a suffering like Freud’s can be understood, and whether the notion of authenticity may help us overcome some of the limitations of an argument based primarily on the right to self-determination
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