Non-voluntary euthanasia

Non-voluntary euthanasia: A person's life is ended without their consent but with the consent of someone representing their interests (guardian) and in some cases this is the medical professional.

Scholarly support for non-voluntary euthanasia

Glover says that it is right to help a person to end their life when:

• Others would agree that their life is no longer worth living
• There is no hope for a change in their situation
• Singer
• Gregory Pence
• Kevin Smith
• Dawkins

Applied to natural law

Natural law ethicists would reject euthanasia under any circumstance, however, if people chose to reject this and support non-voluntary euthanasia, they consider this has taken place for the following reasons:

• It is seen as an apparent good, whereby the person believes they are doing a compassionate thing by thinking about the person's needs by wanting to end their life. They have been mistaken by the perils of this world and sought Felicitas (earthly happiness) rather than striving for real goods.

The Law of Double Effect: The double effect argument involves making a distinction between foreseeing what will happen and actually intending it to happen e.g. giving a large dose of morphine to control the pain of a terminally ill patient foreseeing that it would shorten the patient's life.

Applied to situation ethics

Fletcher states that in certain situations a person can no longer be classed a 'person' and that the most loving thing to do would be to commit euthanasia, his 'Indicators of humanhood': self-awareness, self-control, sense of future, sense of past, capacity to relate to others, concern for others, communication, curiosity. Through this, he clearly shows his support for non-voluntary euthanasia