哲学者の立場から : 死ぬ権利の正当化は誤謬ではないか?(シンポジウム1 死ぬ権利はあるか)

抄録

In this article, I will chiefly demonstrate the assertion that the right to die cannot yet be justified. And I will carry out this demonstration from the following five aspects. First of all, the way of society and culture should not be ignored, for the right to live and the right to die are also dependent upon the way of society and culture. Particularly noteworthy is the horizontal development of society and culture. In the long run, if this development is enough to preserve all the lives of people sufficiently, people may not claim the right to die. Secondly, I notice the problem of the method of the ethical question itself, which academic practices have often overlooked. Because this problem has effected the justification of the right to die as I will show later. Third, we must clearly distinguish the right to die from inevitable death by reason of historical limitations. This argument, of which many sholars often have forgotten, should be unavoidable. Fourthly, we may be informed of some problems about the right of self-determination. Because even if the authentic right to death is guessed on the basis of the right of genuine self-determination, that case cannot often be brought into materialization. Fifthly, we should direct our attention to self-preservation of life itself and to social intensification of a disposition to this self-preservation. I have confidence that the evidence of demonstration which can be acquired from those aspects mentioned above in this article may be sufficiently strong to override the justification of the right to die.