Ethical Theories Of Euthanasia
There are plenty of ethical theories regarding euthanasia and there is an equal number of controversies plaguing this procedure of "mercy killing". There are differences of opinion between two things can be fathomed through an examination of value hierarchies. This is a system in which a particular person orders the value system after ranking the different values in order of their importance. Abraham Maslow is credited to develop one of the most important value systems known to the world in the year 1954. This value system also assists a person to judge or measure the controversies regarding euthanasia.
It must be kept in mind that the proponents of the euthanasia have a completely different system of value than their opponents. Doerflinger has been seen to properly argue in clear words for a certain type of value hierarchy after he stated that life is the most important ‘good' and all other necessary goods must be achieved only after the substance called life is secured. As per his logic nothing can exist without life itself. There can be no value or anything related in devoid of life.
Much in a similar fashion, the euthanasia proponents also firmly have a belief in the immense value of life. However the main difference between them and Doerflinger is the fact that they do not place life as highly as him. In place of that the proponent of euthanasia would agree that an individual's right posses the most important value or in other words it can be said that the quality of life is way above than the value of life. There are times when life is not worth living even though it is the most important thing. In case a person has no rights or has a low quality of lifestyle then such people just might go foe euthanasia and escape the misery that their wretched life fills them up with. Euthanasia is one procedure that challenges the very system of value that society has formed and makes all of us abide by. It is a known fact that some aspects of society are sort of force fed to us and anything that rebels against this ongoing system would face opposition.
One of the most prominent ways of examining ethics as well as values is the usage of normative ethical theories. Examining a problem through such theories one can easily determine whether a particular system needs alteration and there are many normative ethical theories available in today's world. There are other theories like rights theory, ethical egoism and utilitarianism available in the modern day world and all of them can be studied in aspect of the concept of euthanasia.
Ethical egoism was initially propounded by Thomas Hobbes in his work Leviathan and it simply is about the fact that in case any case increases one's own good then its all good. Utilitarianism was put forward by John Stuart Mill in ‘On Liberty' and this theory states that in case any action increases the overall strength then its good while the Rights Theory as propounded by people like Jefferson, Kant and Locke states that the rights are all born in the constitution and were conceived as Nature's but were not created by law. We see that the concept of euthanasia relies heavily on the Rights Theory.