The psychological slippery slope from physician-assisted death to active euthanasia: a paragon of fallacious reasoning

Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy
Jordan Potter

Abstract

In the debate surrounding the morality and legality of the practices of physician-assisted death and euthanasia, a common logical argument regularly employed against these practices is the "slippery slope argument." One formulation of this argument claims that acceptance of physician-assisted death will eventually lead down a "slippery slope" into acceptance of active euthanasia, including its voluntary, non-voluntary, and/or involuntary forms, through psychological and social processes that warp a society's values and moral perspective of a practice over an extended period of time. This formulation is known as the psychological slippery slope argument. This paper analyzes the psychological slippery slope argument as it is applied to the practice of physician-assisted death, and utilizing recent empirical evidence from various nations around the world that practice physician-assisted death and/or euthanasia, the paper argues that (1) employing the psychological slippery slope argument against physician-assisted death is logically fallacious, (2) this kind of slippery slope is unfounded in practice, and thus (3) the psychological slippery slope argument is insufficient on its own to justify continued legal prohibition of physici...Continue Reading

References

Feb 24, 2001·The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics : a Journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics·W Wright
Mar 8, 2007·The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics : a Journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics·Penney Lewis
Mar 18, 2015·The New England Journal of Medicine·Kenneth ChambaereLuc Deliens
Jul 6, 2016·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·Ezekiel J EmanuelJoachim Cohen
Aug 3, 2017·The New England Journal of Medicine·Agnes van der HeideBregje D Onwuteaka-Philipsen

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Citations

Oct 2, 2019·Medicina·Carla GramagliaPatrizia Zeppegno
May 16, 2020·BMC Medical Ethics·Iain Brassington
Aug 1, 2021·Journal of Medical Ethics·Tamara Raquel Velasco SanzBenjamin Herreros

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