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Sanctity of Life, Voluntary Euthanasia and the Dutch Experience: Some Implications for Public Policy

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Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity

Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine ((PHME,volume 52))

Abstract

In its 1980 Declaration on Euthanasia, the Roman Catholic Church reconfirmed its firm opposition to euthanasia of any kind: “… nothing and no one can in any way permit the killing of an innocent human being, whether a foetus or an embryo, an infant or an adult, an old person or one suffering from an incurable disease, or a person who is dying” ([20], p. 7). The Declaration captures what I want to call the “sanctity-of-life view”. This is the view that all innocent human lives are absolutely inviolable and equally valuable, and that the intentional termination of such lives is always morally wrong [11].

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© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Kuhse, H. (1996). Sanctity of Life, Voluntary Euthanasia and the Dutch Experience: Some Implications for Public Policy. In: Bayertz, K. (eds) Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 52. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1590-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1590-9_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7212-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1590-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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