Title: BBC - Ethics - Euthanasia: Anti-euthanasia arguments
Headings: Anti-euthanasia arguments
Anti-euthanasia arguments
On this page
Overview of anti-euthanasia arguments
Ethical arguments
Practical arguments
Historical arguments
Religious arguments
Against the will of God
The value of suffering
The religious attitude to suffering
The nature of suffering
Dying is good for us
Eastern religions
A non-religious view
The nature of suffering
Sanctity of life
We are valuable for ourselves
We must respect our own value
The slippery slope
Various forms of the slippery slope argument
Devalues some lives
The disabled person's perspective
Opposition to this argument
Patient's best interests
Other people have rights too
Proper palliative care
Making things better for patient, family and friends
Spiritual care
Palliative care and euthanasia
Legalising euthanasia may reduce the availability of palliative care
When palliative care is not enough
Fears about regulation
It gives doctors too much power
Pressure on the vulnerable
The pressure of feeling a burden
Pressure from family and others
Financial pressure

Content: When people are dying they may be able, more than at any time in their life, to concentrate on the important things in life, and to set aside the present-day 'consumer culture', and their own ego and desire to control the world. Curtailing the process of dying would deny them this opportunity. Eastern religions
Several Eastern religions believe that we live many lives and the quality of each life is set by the way we lived our previous lives. Those who believe this think that suffering is part of the moral force of the universe, and that by cutting it short a person interferes with their progress towards ultimate liberation. A non-religious view
Some non-religious people also believe that suffering has value. They think it provides an opportunity to grow in wisdom, character, and compassion. Suffering is something which draws upon all the resources of a human being and enables them to reach the highest and noblest points of what they really are. Suffering allows a person to be a good example to others by showing how to behave when things are bad. M Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Travelled, has written that in a few weeks at the end of life, with pain properly controlled a person might learn
how to negotiate a middle path between control and total passivity, about how to welcome the responsible care of strangers, about how to be dependent once again ... about how to trust and maybe even, out of existential suffering, at least a little bit about how to pray or talk with God. M Scott Peck
The nature of suffering
It isn't easy to define suffering - most of us can decide when we are suffering but what is suffering for one person may not be suffering for another.