Volume 7, Number 1, 23-36, DOI: 10.1023/A:1009448003324

Lebensunwertes Leben and the Obligation to Die: Does the Obligation to Die Rest on a Misunderstanding of Community?

Erich H. Loewy and Roberta Springer Loewy

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Abstract

In this paper the authors address the recent argument that we have an obligation to seek or actively bring about our own death when we burden others too greatly. Some of the problems with this argument and some of the practical conseqeuences of adopting such a point of view are discussed in this paper. We argue that the argument rests on an individualistic approach which sees the family being burdened as standing alone instead of seeing it as embedded in a burden-sharing community.

burden - community - Lebensunwertes Leben - obligation - relationship - shared commitments - virtues

(President -- Hans Jonas Verein, Wien, Austria)
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.

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