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HERO ID
500015
Reference Type
Journal Article
Title
The ethics of killing and letting die: active and passive euthanasia
Author(s)
McLachlan, HV
Year
2008
Is Peer Reviewed?
Yes
Journal
Journal of Medical Ethics
ISSN:
0306-6800
EISSN:
1473-4257
Volume
34
Issue
8
Language
English
DOI
10.1136/jme.2007.023382
Abstract
In their account of passive euthanasia, Garrard and Wilkinson present arguments that might lead one to overlook significant moral differences between killing and letting die. To kill is not the same as to let die. Similarly, there are significant differences between active and passive euthanasia. Our moral duties differ with regard to them. We are, in general, obliged to refrain from killing each and everyone. We do not have a similar obligation to try (or to continue to try) to prevent each and everyone from dying. In any case, to be morally obliged to persist in trying to prevent their deaths would be different from being morally obliged to refrain from killing all other people even if we had both obligations.
Keywords
death
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