Self-Determination and the Wrongfulness of Death

Abstract

Self-determination has become the central ideal governing medical treatment for patients generally and for terminally ill people specifically. Proponents of physician-assisted suicide set this ideal as their core claim. Opponents assert that the practice, if legally recognized, would inevitably slide into involuntary euthanasia for vulnerable people. This article will explore internal tensions within the self-determination ideal as applied to the administration of death that give plausibility to this "slippery slope" concern.