Can Suicide Preserve One’s Dignity? Kant and Kantians on the Moral Response to Cognitive Loss
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Matthew C. Altman
Abstract
Kantian defenders of suicide for the soon-to-be demented claim that killing oneself would protect rather than violate a person’s inherent worth. The loss of cognitive functions reduces someone to a lower moral status, so they believe that suicide is a way of preserving or preventing the loss of dignity. I argue that they misinterpret Kant’s examples and fail to appreciate the reasons behind his absolute prohibition on suicide. Although Kant says that one may have to sacrifice one’s life to fulfill a moral duty, suicide is not morally equivalent to self-sacrifice because it involves treating oneself merely as a means. Furthermore, people facing the onset of dementia would not protect their dignity by killing themselves while they are still rational and would not avoid a demeaning existence.
List of the English Translations
Critique of Practical Reason. In: Practical Philosophy. Trans. and ed. Mary J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Search in Google Scholar
Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. and ed. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. In: Practical Philosophy. Trans. and ed. Mary J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Search in Google Scholar
Lectures on Ethics. Trans. Peter Heath. Ed. Peter Heath and J. B. Schneewind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.Search in Google Scholar
Metaphysics of Morals. In: Practical Philosophy. Trans. and ed. Mary J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Search in Google Scholar
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Abhandlungen
- Kant’s Critical Objection to the Rationalists in the B-Deduction
- Cassirer, der Grundlagenstreit und die „idealen Elemente“ der Mathematik
- Berichte und Diskussionen
- Can Suicide Preserve One’s Dignity? Kant and Kantians on the Moral Response to Cognitive Loss
- Traduction de l’ « Introduction » du cours de droit naturel ditNaturrecht Feyerabend(1784)
- Bibliographie
- Kant-Bibliographie 2018
- Mitteilungen
- Jahresinhalt Kant-Studien Jg. 111, 2020
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Abhandlungen
- Kant’s Critical Objection to the Rationalists in the B-Deduction
- Cassirer, der Grundlagenstreit und die „idealen Elemente“ der Mathematik
- Berichte und Diskussionen
- Can Suicide Preserve One’s Dignity? Kant and Kantians on the Moral Response to Cognitive Loss
- Traduction de l’ « Introduction » du cours de droit naturel ditNaturrecht Feyerabend(1784)
- Bibliographie
- Kant-Bibliographie 2018
- Mitteilungen
- Jahresinhalt Kant-Studien Jg. 111, 2020
