Citation

Pilpel A, Amsel L. Philosophia (Ramat Gan) 2011; 39(1): 111-123.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11406-010-9253-x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Recently, the 'right to die' became a major social issue. Few agree suicide is a right tout court. Even those who believe suicide ('regular', passive, or physician-assisted) is sometimes morally permissible usually require that a suicide be 'rational suicide': instrumentally rational, autonomous, due to stable goals, not due to mental illness, etc. We argue that there are some perfectly 'rational suicides' that are, nevertheless, bad mistakes. The concentration on the rationality of the suicide instead of on whether it is a mistake may lead to permitting suicides that should be forbidden. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Language: en

Keywords

Medical ethics; Decision theory; Rational suicide