The empathic genesis of the Right to Euthanasia

Abstract

Euthanasia is an ancient theme that, especially since individual autonomy became the health paradigm in contemporary societies, has aroused deep reflections and declared dissensions between different socio-ideological quadrants. In turn, the relation between empathy and morality has been addressed several times over the recent centuries. Studies and opinion articles present disparate conclusions regarding this relation, mainly because a heterogeneous, nebulous and somewhat maladjusted conceptual approach to human nature has prevailed. In this article, we will argue that, considering diversity as the fundamental axiological axis of a democratic rule of law, empathy is fundamental to respond properly to the most diverse circumstances in which an ethical-legal decision is pending, as in euthanasia.

Keywords

• constitution, empathy, ethics, euthanasia, law, morality