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- ISSN: 0167-2444
- E-ISSN: 2949-8651
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Whose life is it anyway? Some reflections on Den Hartogh’s What Kind of Death
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Filosofie & Praktijk, Volume 45, Issue 1, Apr 2024, p. 17 - 26
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- 01 Apr 2024
Abstract
Abstract
This contribution will restrict itself to Den Hartogh’s conceptual framework and formulate some hesitations about Den Hartogh’s moral premisses which he calls ‘ethical atoms’ (p. 159-160, 317). For at least two reasons I will discuss these premisses with a certain reluctance. First of all, the sensitive nature of what is at stake here: matters of life and death and the question of what we owe others and ourselves; secondly and more on a more personal level, my hesitations do not lead to any clear alternative moral premisses. Especially with regard to Den Hartogh’s central premiss concerning self-determination, I sympathise Velleman’s approach in one of his famous articles: I am neither completely pro nor completely con. I am more, like, not so sure.
© Thomas Mertens
Keyword(s):
right to die;
right to life;
right to private life;
right to self-determination;
‘Volenti non fit iniuria’.