PHIL 380-001 End of Life Questions with
Answers 2024
Active Euthanasia: - ANS The intentional and direct killing of another human life either
out of motives of mercy, beneficence, or respect for personal autonomy; mercy killing.
Advanced Directive - ANS a set of instructions from a competent, autonomous,
informed person regarding decisions about future medical treatment in the event that
the person becomes incapable of making a decision at a future time.
Baby Doe laws - ANS Child born with Down Syndrome and trachea-esophical fistula
(hole in esophagus) correctable with surgery, on doctors advise parents refused to
consent, hospital argued up to state supreme court, baby died, resulted in Baby Doe
Laws (s. 504 of Disability Act)
lBaby born with spina bifida, hydrocephalus, a damaged kidney and an alleged
microcephaly; surgery was necessary to drain hydrocephaly; parents refused upon
doctors advise; pro-life group sued and court ruled in favor of parents;
lJustice department charged parents in violating Baby Doe Laws and demanded
hospital records as evidence; argued in court and hospital won; argued all the way to
U.S.S.C.
lBowen v. American Hospital Assoc.(1986) ruled that the records did not need to be
released and because the parents, who were the ones making the decision, were not
"federally funded recipients" Section 504 did not apply.
lDuring all of this parents changed their mind and consented to surgery, Kerri-Lynn lived
and was released from the hospital when she was two. At the age of five it was written
of her that "she is doing better than any one expected - talking, attending school for the
handicap, and gets around in a wheel chair"
Bare Difference Argument - ANS nAn attempt to erase the distinction between active
and passive euthanasia by showing they both result in the same end and therefore they
are ultimately the same thing. Ill:
Brain Death - ANS "An individual who has sustained . . . irreversible cessation of all
functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. A determination of death
must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards" (UDDA)
Defective non-person view - ANS The infant has not achieved the status of person and
therefore there is no obligation to keep it alive.
infanticide is morally justifiable because moral rights, especially right to life, are
grounded in being a person and infants are human non-persons.
DNR Order - ANS do not resuscitate
if justifiable, are a form of passive euthanasia. The body is beginning to shut down as it
goes through the stages of death.
