Does the Practice of Voluntary Active Euthanasia Have Undesirable Consequences?
Crucial Point: If one wishes to accept passive euthanasia, but reject active euthanasia, it will not do simply to argue that active euthanasia may have, or is likely to have, certain undesirable consequences: one must also argue that passive euthanasia is not likely to have undesirable consequences of the same sort. On this topic it is extremely easy to stumble into inconsistency, advancing arguments against active euthanasia but not against passive euthanasia, even though they are as applicable to the latter as to the former. 5.2 Arguments of Type (2A): Undesirable Consequences in Individual Cases? In an article “Some Nonreligious Views Against Proposed ‘Mercy-Killing’ Legislation”, Minnesota Law Review, volume 42, number 6, 1958, pp. 969-1042, Yale Kamisar cites a number of undesirable consequences that he believes are likely to flow from the practice of voluntary active euthanasia in individual cases: (l) People will request active euthanasia in cases where they do not have a ration
