Situation Ethics

• Most loving thing may be to give someone a peaceful death
• Personal

  Puts people above rules
• What is the use in keeping someone alive if to suffer?
• Even if euthanasia was not allowed, it may be right to break the law and help someone to die
• What did Fletcher say?

  "To prolong life uselessly, while the personal qualities of freedom, knowledge, self-possession, control and responsibility are sacrificed is to attack the moral status of a person"
• Example: Physician assisted suicide (PAS)

  • Jim, 45, has a terminal disease with 8 months left to live
  • His condition will deteriorate and he will be in great pain
  • Situation ethics says he has the right to die just as he has the right to live