FAU Applying Virtue Ethics Euthanasia Discussion
I’m working on a psychology discussion question and need support to help me study.
In this Module, you have learned about Virtue Ethics and spent time thinking about an article written on your applied ethics topic from the perspective of a virtue ethicist. In your initial post, you must do the following:
- Clearly explain the author’s position on your topic (animal rights, euthanasia, or global poverty). This should be formatted like a thesis statement (e.g., Slote believes that it is wrong to ….).
- Clearly explain the author’s reasons in support of this position. Make sure to do so well enough that your classmates who are working on another topic understand the author’s argument as well as how it counts as an argument from a virtue ethical perspective.
- Then, state whether you agree with the author’s conclusion and explain why or why not.
*Remember, the article you need to read for this discussion forum can be found in 5.2: Applying Virtue Ethics and is based on the topic that you’ve chosen. You should be writing on one of the following articles:
- Animal Rights: “The Good Life for Non-Human Animals: What Virtue Requires of Us” by Rebecca Walker
- Euthanasia: “Trust, Suffering, and the Aesculapian Virtues” by Annette C. Baier
- Global Poverty: “Famine, Affluence, and Virtue” by Michael Slote
Virtue Ethics Solves Euthanasia
Out of the 50 states only 4 states have authorized it or physician-assisted suicide. This implies that in this contemporary debate, 92% of the states believe that euthanasia should not be permitted. Looking to virtue ethics can help solve this debate and answer the question “Should euthanasia be legalized?” The question to what euthanasia is must be answered first. Virtue ethics must then be defined in order to understand how the debate will be settled. Compiling this information will show that the only ethical response, according to virtue ethics, is euthanasia must be considered on a case-by-case morality basis. To begin with, euthanasia is the painless killing of patients, with painful and incurable diseases or in comas, by their physician. Euthanasia has also been known as mercy killing and physician-assisted suicide.
