Euthanasia debate: Autonomy at all costs?

The founder of the International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying has recently written on what he calls a new and different approach in the case for assisted dying. ^[1]

He says: “I believe that a type of freedom we can call freedom over death – that is, a freedom in which we shape the timing and circumstances of how we die – should be central to this conversation.”

He is pointing to what is indeed a more recent direction in the arguments for euthanasia laws. It used to be all about compassion – having compassion on those who are suffering in the painful process of dying from a terrible disease such as cancer.