When Life Becomes Optional: A Comment on Kevin O’Rourke’s Approach to Forgoing Life Support
Issues in Law & Medicine, Vol. 10, p. 343, 1994
9 Pages Posted: 21 Sep 2012
Date Written: January 23, 1994
Abstract
This article is the author's attempt to more clearly understand the euthanasia debate. The author is blind and worries that "quality of life" could be used as a vehicle for invidious discrimination. Much legal commentary on euthanasia is unenlightening and more polemic than analysis. As a Catholic, the author explores what light that tradition could shed on the issues at hand. This article focuses specifically on arguments some Catholic theologians have offered in the current debate over forgoing life support for persons in a persistent vegetative state.
Keywords: euthanasia, discrimination, Catholicism, quality of life issues
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