Immanuel Kant and the Problem of Euthanasia

The article examines the issue of evaluating the practice of so-called euthanasia, ending the life of a terminally ill person, in the light of Immanuel Kant’s practical philosophy (ethics and philosophy of law). Compulsory euthanasia, which ignores the free expression of the patient’s will, is definitely criminalized and condemned by Kantian morality. The universal principle of law, which allows to recognize as legal any voluntary and independently determined action compatible with the external freedom of individuals, could have served as a justification for this practice, if separated from its context. However, by analogy with the first example of the categorical imperative, that considers the situation of a person intending to commit suicide due to the unbearable burden of disasters and troubles, it can be concluded that in the case of voluntary euthanasia, according to the principles of Kantian ethics, the moral law is contradicted not by the maxim of the doctor, but by the maxim of the requester, i.e. the patient. Kant’s ethical idealism is focused on the value of the civil freedom of individuals, on their right to self-determination in matters of personal happiness. The person or panel deciding on the euthanasia of a patient who cannot give meaningful consent (involuntary euthanasia) encroaches therefore by its decision into the sphere of the patient’s original personal rights, and its maxim is thus a special case of despotic, or “paternal”, practical legislation. Thus, this maxim not only does not implement the universal principle of law, but sharply contradicts this principle. Kant’s doctrine of law and morality, which at a first glance disposes to an unconditional justification of medical euthanasia by justifying liberal values, in fact makes Kant a principled opponent of this practice.