Is THERE A DUTY TO DIE?

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1 Is THERE A DUTY TO DIE?

2 BIOMEDICAL ETHICS REVIEWS Edited by James M. Humber and Robert F. Almeder BOARD OF EDITORS William Bechtel Washington University St. Louis. Missouri William J. Curran Harvard School of Public Health Boston. Massachusetts Kurt Hirschhorn The Mount Sinai Medical Center New York. New York Richard Hull State Univ. of New York. Buffalo Amherst. New York James Muyskens University System of Georgia Atlanta. Georgia James Rachels University of Alabama Birmingham, Alabama George Rainbolt Georgia State University Atlanta. Georgia Richard Wasserstrom University of California Santa Cruz, California Thomas H. Murray Case Western Reserve University Cleveland. Ohio

3 BIOMEDICAL ETHICS REVIEWS Is THERE A DUTY TO DIE? Edited by James M. Humber and Robert F. Almeder Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia *' Springer-Science+Business Media, LLC

4 Copyright 2000 by Springer-Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Humana Press Inc. in 2000 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 2000 AII rights in any form whatsoever reserved. No part of this book may be reproducecl, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise) without written permission from the publisher. AII authored papers, comments, opinions, conclusions, or recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This publication is printed on acid-free paper. <Si> ANSI Z (American National Standards Institute) Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. Cover design by Patricia F. Cleary. Photocopy Authorization Policy: Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by Humana Press Ine., provided that the base fee of US $10.00 per copy, plus US $00.25 per page, is paid directly to the Copyright Clearance Center at222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA For those organizations that have been granted a photocopy license from the cec, a separate system of payment has been arranged and is acceptable to Humana Press Inc. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / The Library of Congress has cataloged this serial title as follows: Biomedical ethics review~1983- Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, c1982- v.; 25 cm-(contemporary issues in biomedicine, ethics, and society) Annual. Editors: James M. Humber and Robert F. Almeder. ISSN = Biomedical ethics reviews. 1. Medical ethic~eriodicals. 1. Humber, James M. II. Almeder, Robert F. III. Series. [DNLM: Ethics, Medical--periodicals. W1 B615 (P)l R724.B '.2'05-dc AACR2 MARC-S

5 Contents vii ix Preface Contributors 1 Global Life Expectancies and the Duty to Die Margaret P. BaUin 23 Is There a Duty to Die? Jan Narveson 41 Do We Have a Duty to Die? Marilyn BenneU 61 The Duty to Die: A Contractarian Approach Robert E. Ehman 79 Rule Utilitarianism and the Right to Die Michael Almeida 95 The Nature, Scope, and Implications of a Personal Moral Duty to Die Paul T. Menzel 115 Analyzing the Moral Duty to Die J. Angelo Cor/eU 133 Duty to Die Rosemarie Tong 159 How Could There Be a Duty to Die? David Drebushenko 177 Do We Ever Have a Duty to Die? Susan Leigh Anderson 191 Grandma, the GNP, and the Duty to Die Judith Lee Kissell 205 Dying for Others: Family, Altruism, and a Duty to Die Ryan Spellecy 217 Index v

6 Preface The question of whether there might be a duty to die was first raised by Margaret Battin in 1987 in her ground-breaking essay, "Age Distribution and the Just Distribution of Health Care: Is There a Dutyto-Die?" In 1997 the issue was reprised when two new articles appeared on the topic written by John Hardwig and the other by former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm. Given the renewed interest in the topic, as well as its undeniable importance, Biomedical Ethics Reviews sought to initiate an in-depth discussion of the issue by soliciting articles and issuing a general call for papers on the topic "Is There a Duty to Die?" The twelve articles in this volume represent the ultimate fruits of those initiatives. The first seven essays in this text are sympathetic to the claim that there is a duty to die. They argue either: (a) that some form of a duty to die exists, or (b) that arguments that might be offered against the existence of such a duty cannot be sustained. By way of contrast, the last five articles in the text are critical of duty-to-die claims: The authors of the first three of these five articles attempt to cast doubt on the existence of a duty to die, and the writers of the last two essays argue that if such a duty did exist, severe problems would arise whenever we attempted to implement it. "Is There a Duty to Die?" is the seventeenth annual volume of Biomedical Ethics Reviews, a series of texts designed to review and update the literature on issues of central importance in bioethics today. For the convenience of our readers, each article in every issue of Biomedical Ethics Reviews is prefaced by a short abstract describing that article's content. Each volume in the series is organized around a central theme; the theme for the next volume of Biomedical Ethics Reviews will be "Privacy and Health Care." We hope our readers will find the present volume of Biomedical Ethics Reviews to be both enjoyable and informative, and that they will look forward with anticipation to the publication of "Privacy and Health Care." vii James M. Humber Robert F. Almeder

7 Contributors Michael Almeida Department of English, Classics, Philosophy, and Communication, The University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas Susan Leigh Anderson Department of Philosophy, University of Connecticut at Stamford, Connecticut Margaret P. Battin Department of Philosophy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah Marilyn Bennett Department of Philosophy, College ofst. Catherine, St. Paul, Minnesota J. Angelo Corlett Department of Philosophy, San Diego State University, San Diego, California David Drebushenko Department of Philosophy and Political Science, University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, Indiana Robert E. Ehman Department of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee Judith Lee Kissell Interdisciplinary Studies, Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia Paul T. Menzell Office of the Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington Jan Narveson Department of Philosophy, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Ryan SpeUecy Department of Philosophy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah Rosemarie Tong Department of Philosophy, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina ix

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