ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the moral problems to which such trust can lead in relation to debates about the legalisation of euthanasia. It focuses on a critique of their analysis of non-voluntary active euthanasia (NVAE). Voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) gets much more attention in public debate. Dr Rain, a consultant cardiologist, agrees, claiming that legalisation of euthanasia would lead to a slippery slope with incompetent people being inappropriately killed. Nurse Jones returns to Dr Rain's argument about slippery slopes and the moral and medical disaster that the legalisation of euthanasia in Holland supposedly demonstrates. Jones rejects Rain's argument because she rejects his evidence. The presentation in Law and Medical Ethics (LME) of arguments for and against is more balanced but less specified than the discussion of VAE. NVAE can be morally justified and should be legalised and that since this is so, it must also be true for VAE and physician-assisted suicide (PAS).
