{"id":686,"date":"2010-10-20T17:42:34","date_gmt":"2010-10-20T16:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=686"},"modified":"2010-10-23T16:42:09","modified_gmt":"2010-10-23T15:42:09","slug":"egregious-silliness-in-the-euthanasia-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/20\/egregious-silliness-in-the-euthanasia-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Egregious Silliness in the Euthanasia Debate…"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a report in the Montreal Gazette<\/em><\/a> from last Thursday concerning proposals to legalise euthanasia.\u00a0 And, assuming that the report is accurate, some of the things being said about those proposals are painfully, painfully, painfully daft.<\/p>\n

Margaret Somerville’s objection to euthanasia seems to be that it is killing, and that killing remains morally wrong “even in a secular society”.\u00a0 Formally, I suppose that this argument works – though, obviously, it commits the ignoratio elenchi<\/a><\/em> fallacy, because those who support euthanasia would deny that all<\/em> killing is wrong from the off.\u00a0 Assuming the report in the paper is accurate, I’m actually puzzled about the target of this dazzling insight: does Somerville think that defenders of euthanasia hadn’t noticed that it was killing under discussion?\u00a0 That they’d have a facepalm moment as it dawned on them?\u00a0 Surely not.<\/p>\n

It gets even more strange: she’s reported as claiming that<\/p>\n

([m]orality) is even more important in a secular society because you haven’t got religion as that foundation to fall back on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, it appears that the word “morality” was interpolated here, so the reporter might have got the wrong end of the stick.\u00a0 But let’s allow that the gist of the report is right: is the implication that you don’t need morality in a non-secular society?\u00a0 In that case, what sense can we make of the idea that killing is wrong even<\/em> in a secular society?\u00a0 The best I can do is that it’s wrong in a religious culture, but that the wrongness there for some reason doesn’t matter.\u00a0 Odd.<\/p>\n

We can follow the rabbit-hole even further.<\/p>\n

Somerville noted that our society’s legal and medical values oppose killing.<\/p>\n

“What would legalizing euthanasia do to the institutions of law and medicine?” she asked.\u00a0 “We do not kill each other.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This commits the naturalistic fallacy – just because a society has one set of beliefs doesn’t indicate that those beliefs tell us anything about what ought to be done.\u00a0 But it’s also pernicious: after all, if “our” society opposes killing, then anyone who thinks that killing may be permissible is\u00a0by implication an exile, and so can be safely ignored.\u00a0 And the rhetorical question provides a wonderful example of the difference between rhetorical questions and argument.\u00a0 What would legalising euthanasia do to law and medicine?\u00a0 My guess is that it’d change them a bit.\u00a0 Which is exactly what proponents of euthanasia would like to see.\u00a0 As crushing blows go, it’s laughable.\u00a0 She seems to be saying that we ought not to change things because doing so would change things.\u00a0 Oh, noes, as they say on the internet.<\/p>\n

It might be that Somerville has been misreported – and given where she works, and a list of publications that’s mind-bendingly long, that seems quite possible.\u00a0 If she has, she probably ought to have words with the editors, because what’s reported here looks very silly indeed.<\/p>\n

But even if the reportage is accurate, I think that the subs should not escape criticism.\u00a0 The clincher for this is in the headline:<\/p>\n

Euthanasia is ‘Killing,’ McGill Ethicist Tells Quebec Hearings<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow.<\/p>\n

Coming soon: revelations that the Pope is Catholic.\u00a0 Also – read all about it – we’re getting reports that a trio of ursine mammals really did engage in sylvan defecation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a report in the Montreal Gazette from last Thursday concerning proposals to legalise euthanasia.\u00a0 And, assuming that the report is accurate, some of the things being said about those proposals are painfully, painfully, painfully daft. Margaret Somerville’s objection to euthanasia seems to be that it is killing, and that killing remains morally wrong “even […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,591],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-life-and-death"],"yoast_head":"\nEgregious Silliness in the Euthanasia Debate... - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/20\/egregious-silliness-in-the-euthanasia-debate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Egregious Silliness in the Euthanasia Debate... - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There’s a report in the Montreal Gazette from last Thursday concerning proposals to legalise euthanasia.\u00a0 And, assuming that the report is accurate, some of the things being said about those proposals are painfully, painfully, painfully daft. 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