Terri Schiavo: We wouldn't treat a dog this way

Thrasymachus raises the uncomfortable issue that we wouldn't let a faithful old dog die of thirst. We'd have her put to sleep:

Why is she being killed through neglect though? Starvation and dehydration in fact?

Simple enough. Because euphemisms matter. It's important, for our own moral well-being, that we be able to lie to ourselves that this is a matter of "not prolonging her life."

It would be more humane to Schiavo to use lethal injection to end her life. But its effect upon us would be warping. [More]

Tough questions ... But is this really a stable sticking point? Or will there be an inevitable slide toward state-sanctioned killing of the infirm, once the logic of the current system sinks in?

One thing I've wanted to mention is that I've always thought that there was something not quite right about using doctors to execute murderers via lethal injection. I think that's a job for professional executioners, perhaps one single family like in England over a few generations. (I don't think the job requires a doctor's professional expertise. What's the worst that could happen if the executioner screws up? The patient dies. Perhaps a veterinarian would be the appropriate professional to carry out a lethal injection execution.)

I'm not crazy about doctors killing people, in prisons or in hospitals, lest they grow too fond of it, to paraphrase Robert E. Lee on war.

I would rather that doctors focus just on making you better, just as when you hire a defense attorney, his professional ethics require him to do what he can to get you off even if he thinks you're guilty.

The Dutch system where doctors are supposed to heal some people and kill others, to play both defense attorney and executioner, strikes me as presupposing a degree of moral strength that not all doctors are likely to have. Killing is a psychologically fraught act and some doctors who feel uncertain about past killings they've carried out might well respond by lowering the bar against medical killings even further and trying to persuade their fellow doctors to lower it too. That way they can assuage their consciences by saying to themselves, "Everybody is doing it. It's standard operating procedure."

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer