Five Easy Arguments for Assisted Suicide and the Objections of Velleman and Gorsuch

Abstract

This chapter presents five arguments in favor of the moral permissibility of, and even a duty to engage in, physician-assisted suicide both to end suffering and for other reasons in those who are and are not terminally ill. It considers objections to these sorts of arguments presented by David Velleman from a Kantian perspective and by Neil Gorsuch (now associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) who argues against intentionally causing death. The chapter considers how to identify intention, the significance of it for moral and legal permissibility, and the role of the Doctrine of Double Effect in arguments about assisted suicide. It also deals with the difference between assisted suicide for the good of some enabling versus causing harm to others.