Jason Chen
5.1K posts
Jason Chen
@chenphilosophy
Bioethicist at The Ohio State University. Certified health care ethics consultant. Creator of The Philosophy Podcast Hub. Host of The Ethical Frontier podcast.
Katılım Mart 2012
1.3K Takip Edilen757 Takipçiler
Per the National Literacy Institute,
- 21% of adults in the US were illiterate in 2024.
- 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).
- The US ranks 36th in literacy.
Link below.
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My response to Yuan Yi Zhu's @yuanyi_z article on euthanasia.
I argue that supporting assisted death doesn't require holding contradictory beliefs.
Link below.
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This rings true. I made so many seemingly unreasonable choices.
Volunteered to work for no pay at a place while I was unemployed. Led to one of the greatest jobs I ever had.
Decided to leave one of the greatest jobs I ever had to relocate and get married. One of the best decisions I ever made.
Applied to PhD programs in my mid-30's while I had a secure, full-time position, and moved my family close to a university to take a couple non-degree PhD courses, on the off chance it increased my chances of acceptance.
It did increase my chances, but at another university, so moved across the country and left secure, full-time employment to pursue a PhD in philosophy.
Found out a PhD in philosophy kills your employment opportunities, so moved all the way back across the country while unemployed with zero prospects.
All this led to what is now a good job, with multiple family members living in the same city, flourishing.
Justin Welsh@thejustinwelsh
The happiest people I know all made a choice that looked unreasonable at some point. Left a great job. Turned down a raise. Moved somewhere without a plan. Sometimes the choices that look bad lead to lives that feel great.
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A sign that your students are enjoying your class: when they communicate with you about something that's not related to points.
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@historykev Yes to both. But there is a greater risk of failure when it is unaided. And humans can suffer existentially, while dogs cannot. So while humans can transcend suffering, we are also able to suffer more greatly.
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@chenphilosophy Humans are subjects, self-aware beings capable of ending their own lives unaided. Dogs are not. Human suffering can have meaning and be put in context. Dogs' suffering can't.
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Because civilized countries do not put down their citizens like dogs. Because suffering in humans is not mere sentience. Because even if you are not remotely religious, killing people is wrong. #euthanasia
Catherine Gurney🇨🇦@CatherineGurne3
@JeffreyLuscombe Our pets don’t have to suffer, why do people have to? If you’re of sound mind then it’s your choice.
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@dr_musgrave It’s definitely tragic, but that doesn’t mean people don’t have a fundamental negative right to an assisted death.
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Read about this young, suffering woman’s death; and tell me that assisted dying / euthanasia laws would be a positive thing for our society.
“She died alone in the room, as she had requested, saying that her family did not understand her…”
How terribly, unthinkably sad. 😞
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My interview with Hannah Maslen, the only police ethics consultant I know of.
Link below.
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The newest philosophy podcast episodes!
Malebranche and occasionalism, African philosophy of religion, can the brain alone explain consciousness, is the good life an easy life, why do Americans see each other as morally broken, and more.
Link below.
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@Noahpinion The question is if this person has the decision-making capacity for such a decision. If so, and they have a persistent and consistent wish to die, then it wouldn’t be murder because it would be justified.
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Offering euthanasia to depressed people is state-sponsored murder. There is no ambiguity. It is murder.
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@historykev There’s a good chance you’ll fail. So having some system in place for effective and painless means is useful.
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Absolutely correct. The arguments for euthanasia collapse under their own weight. Except "it's cheaper" and "harvest the organs".
Not to toot my own horn, but I said this in my 2013 book #AssistedSuicide: The Liberal, Humanists Case Against Legalizatiin.
Matt Walsh@MattWalshBlog
All of the arguments for euthanasia fail. Even if I agreed that people have some kind of moral right to kill themselves (which I don’t), euthanasia wouldn’t be needed to exercise that “right.” You can already kill yourself. The idea that people need some kind of state sponsored system just to commit suicide is totally incoherent, even on its own terms. And those term are totally deranged because in truth, again, there is no moral right to suicide. But that’s almost a separate question, or at least a question further downstream. When it comes to euthanasia, the first and most immediate question is not whether people have the right to kill themselves, but whether the STATE and the MEDICAL INDUSTRY have the right to kill people. Should doctors be in the business of deliberately killing human beings? Should we have a bureaucracy for suicide? These are the real questions. And even if you (wrongly) think that humans have a moral right to murder themselves, you should still be able to see why doctors and bureaucrats ought to have no role in it.
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@thelizcarr I think there should be a fundamental negative right to an assisted death because our bodies belong to us.
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Once it's legalised, state approved, medically assisted suicide/euthanasia becomes increasingly socially acceptable
Noelia Castillo, 25, a Spanish woman who became disabled when trying to kill herself after brutal sexual assaults, was euthanised tonight
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
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@DoloresGMorris Thanks for sharing.
Structurally, I see it as comparable to the right to have a sexual relationship. No one is obligated to participate, but if you find someone who's willing, then others have a duty not to interfere.
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I'm all for a negative right to die, but where that means a right not to be kept alive.
A 'right to die' could be a right to refuse treatment, to not be kept alive, to commit suicide, to have help with suicide, or to be killed by a dr.
I just think these are each distinct, & treating them as one is dangerous.
(Been teaching this article this week. nytimes.com/2025/06/01/mag…)
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My "hot take" is that "Medical Aid in Dying" is a clever way of dodging the distinction between Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. The difference matters.
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A crowd gathers in the woods to witness a ritual killing, forming a circle around the condemned man. Families attend, many in their Sunday best. Older children hold babies. Why bring your children to a killing?
The weirdness of Canada in 2026. #euthanasia #assistedsuicide
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@DoloresGMorris Yeah, I see it as a negative right, so no one would be forced to participate.
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I don't think either is morally permissible, but I would be happy if we would it a least continue to distinguish the two. Rights incurs obligations. I can't see how a medical provider could be obligate to kill a patient, but I think it would take less to show an obligation to help a suicidal patient succeed. (Again, I'm inclined against both--but at a minimum convinced that they are two different kinds of actions.)
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