preservation of human life is upmost importance, destruction of this is wrong
quotes for sanctity of life
"so god created man kind in his own image"-genisis 1:26-28
"you knit me together in my mothers womb"-psalm 139:13-16
"I was born with nothing and I will die with nothing. the lord gave and the lord has now taken away"-job 1:21
personhood
-capable of rational thought
-consciousness
-self awareness
-morality
-ability to survive independently
-human genetic makeup
genetic criterion
you are a person if you have DNA (criticism:makes a red blood cell a person)
cognitive criterion
marry anne warren (personhood criteria)
-consciousness
-reasoning
-self motivated activity
-capacity to community
-selfawareness
social criterion
you are a person whenever society recognises you as a person, or when ever someone cares about you. (criticism: you could be fully rational healthy and functioning but not have personhood)
moral agents
when you have personhood
Peter singer and personhood
-sentience, the ability to feel pleasure or pain
-speciesism - shouldn't discriminate against species
-hugely against genetic criterion
gradient theory of personhood
personhood comes in a degree, you can have various amounts (e.g. a baby would have more than a human)
active euthanasia (medical intervention)
acting deliberately to bring about the death of a person (e.g. lethal injection)
passive euthanasia (medical non-intervention)
failing to prevent the death of a person when intervention is in the agents power (e.g. turning off life support)
voluntary euthanasia
intentional ending of a persons life at their request or consent
non-voluntary euthanasia
where a person cannot make a decision for themselves or is incapable of making their wishes known. it is judges by someone else
involuntary euthanasia
decision to euthanise a person against their wishes and consent
slippery slope argument
if you allow one case you may accept something that you wouldn't have before
Hippocratic oath
taken by doctors to vow to save lives. if someone dies you should have tried everything you could to save them