Is suicide ever morally permissible?
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Date
2015-08-19
Authors
Castrillon, Gloria Ledger
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Abstract
The moral permissibility of suicide continues to be as controversial as ever. Recent,
rapid advances in medicine and science, and in particular in those technologies that
extend human life, have resulted in a resurgence of interest in the question. In this
paper, I examine two views on suicide so as to arrive at an answer to the question of
whether suicide is ever morally permissible. I look in some detail at a sanctity-of-life
approach, in which it is argued that suicide is against ‘natural’ law and that it perverts
our rational desire for the good that is life. By way of contrast, I examine a broadly
utilitarian approach to the question. I conclude that it is through the application of the
utilitarian approach that we are able to come to the answer that sometimes, depending
on the circumstances, suicide may in fact be morally permissible, not only for reasons
of suffering or ill health such as we expect to find in the context of euthanasia.
Description
A Research Report Submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Arts, Applied Ethics for Professionals
Johannesburg