Deck 8: Medically Assisted Death

Question 1

Given the view prevalent in US courts, active voluntary euthanasia amounts to

A) A forbidden deliberate killing of a patient
B) A permissible mercy killing of a patient
C) A mandatory intervention honoring the patient's wishes
D) None of the above

Answer 1

A

Question 2

If the Appeal to Mercy is sound, it follows that voluntary active euthanasia is morally

A) Permissible
B) Not only permissible but obligatory
C) Forbidden
D) Optional

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What would be the consequence in health care if there is a right to die? That health care providers

A) Would have a duty to hasten death when the patient requested it
B) Must sometimes give medical assistance in dying when the patient requests it
C) Must always give medical assistance in dying when the patient requests it
D) None of the above

Answer 3

B

Question 4

On the topic of physician-assisted dying, the Appeal to Trust contends that

A) Patients expect physicians to help them achieve an easier and quicker death
B) The patient-health care provider relationship would be enhanced if patients could have assistance in dying
C) The patient-health care provider relationship would be undermined if physicians provided assistance in dying
D) All of the above

Question 5

An argument for the moral permissibility of physician-assisted dying appeals to the fact that suicide tourism is unsafe. This argument implicitly rests on the health care providers' duties of

A) Beneficence
B) Nonmaleficence
C) Autonomy
D) All of the above

Question 6

On the topic of physician-assisted dying, the Slippery-Slope Argument contends that legalizing assisted death is likely to result in what type of abuses?

A) Discrimination against minorities
B) Discrimination against women
C) Discrimination against the disabled
D) All of the above

Question 7

On the topic of physician-assisted dying, the tendency in the US has been toward legalizing

A) Physician-assisted suicide
B) Voluntary active euthanasia
C) Involuntary euthanasia
D) All of the above

Question 8

Which of the following best defines the category of passive voluntary euthanasia?

A) The hastening of a patient's death when she is in no position either to give or withhold consent
B) The hastening of a patient's death when she is in a position to give consent but has not done so
C) The hastening of a patient's death when she is in a position to give consent and has done so
D) None of the above

Question 9

Which of the following best characterizes the legal status of physician-assisted death in the Netherlands? The Netherlands allows regulated

A) Voluntary euthanasia
B) Physician-assisted suicide
C) Both voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide
D) None of the above

Question 10

Which of the following is a medical intervention often considered to hasten, without causing, death?

A) Withholding life-sustaining treatment
B) Physician-assisted suicide
C) Active euthanasia
D) All of the above

Question 11

Dr. Kevorkian helped patients die by practicing

A) Strictly regulated assisted suicide
B) Strictly regulated euthanasia
C) Unregulated assisted suicide and euthanasia
D) All of the above

Question 12

That legalization of physician-assisted dying could undermine society's responsibility to protect the vulnerable is

A) A Slippery-Slope Argument
B) An argument from patient autonomy
C) An appeal to professional duties
D) None of the above

Question 13

A patient's unmitigated suffering or loss of bodily autonomy is invoked as a reason for the moral permissibility of physician-assisted death by

A) The Appeal to Trust
B) The Argument from Mercy
C) The Slippery-Slope Argument
D) The right-to-die Argument

Question 14

Which of the following measures is commonly considered to directly induce death?

A) Euthanasia
B) Terminal sedation
C) Withholding life-sustaining treatment
D) Withdrawing life-sustaining treatment

Question 15

Explain the difference between voluntary, nonvoluntary, and involuntary euthanasia, and provide one reason for the passive-versus-active euthanasia distinction and one against it.

Question 16

Discuss whether compassion argues for or against the moral permissibility of physician-assisted death. What about trust?

Question 17

Provide a slippery-slope argument against the legal permissibility of assisted death. Does your argument commit you to its moral impermissibility?

Question 18

Physician-assisted suicide is illegal in most common law jurisdictions. Those who want to change that might bring certain main considerations to lawmakers' attention. In your view, what should these be?

Question 19

Some think that voluntary active euthanasia is morally equivalent to physician-assisted suicide. Find a reason for and one against this view and discuss which, if either, has more weight.