Is life sacred?

Abstract

This article examines the principle of the sanctity of life and its application in the field of medicine. In particular it aims to highlight recent doctrinal shifts expressing changes in the weight accorded to the principle and considers the implications of these changes, both in terms of the legality of medical intervention and in terms of the protection of the vulnerable. The determinants of the change are both economic and cultural. The economic determinant is the straitened financial circumstances governing the health service, which in practice require doctors and health service officials increasingly to exercise choice as to whose life to sanctify. The cultural determinant is the fragmentation of the moral injunctions and proscriptions signified by the idea that life is sacred. The significance of these altered circumstances and perceptions, it will be argued, is that it may presage a moral paradigm shift which may threaten patient rights as well as resulting in a systematic loosening-up of the old doctrinal taboos against taking life.

Key Words:

• euthanasia
• patient rights
• sanctity of life