When Suicide is not a Self-Killing: Advance Decisions and Psychological Discontinuity—Part I

Derek Parfit’s view of ‘personal identity’ raises questions about whether advance decisions refusing life-saving treatment should be honored in cases where a patient loses psychological continuity; it implies that these advance decisions would not be self-determining at all. Part I of this paper arg...

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Autres titres:When Suicide is not a Self-Killing: Advance Decisions and Psychological Discontinuity, Part 1
Auteur principal: Dowie, Suzanne E. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publié: 2025
Dans: Cambridge quarterly of healthcare ethics
Année: 2025, Volume: 34, Numéro: 3, Pages: 455-466
Sujets non-standardisés:B advance decisions
B psychological continuity
B Suicide
B Parfit
B Personal Identity
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Résumé:Derek Parfit’s view of ‘personal identity’ raises questions about whether advance decisions refusing life-saving treatment should be honored in cases where a patient loses psychological continuity; it implies that these advance decisions would not be self-determining at all. Part I of this paper argues that this assessment of personal identity undermines the distinction between suicide and homicide. However, rather than accept that an unknown metaphysical ‘further fact’ underpins agential unity, one can accept Parfit’s view but offer a different account of what it implies morally: that the social and legal bases for ascribing a persisting ‘personal identity’ maintain the distinction between homicide and suicide.
ISSN:1469-2147
Contient:Enthalten in: Cambridge quarterly of healthcare ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0963180124000227