ABSTRACT
Campbell Tom's mainly philosophical and inevitably selective, contribution to this debate is to offer some analysis of the nature of the arguments standardly presented for and against the euthanasia option from the perspective of human rights. He suggest that the debate about euthanasia as a human right has led to an overemphasis on pro-euthanasia arguments based on autonomy and on anti-euthanasia arguments based on the 'right to life'. Analysing arguments for and against euthanasia from a human rights perspective directs us to the nature and force of human rights rationales. The author focuses on the function of human rights in standing up for and seeks to protect the interests of vulnerable minorities, in the sense of smaller aggregates of persons whose interests conflict with those of larger aggregates or powerful minorities. Philosophers sometimes seek to reduce human rights rationales to the defence and exercise of autonomy.
