嬰兒安樂死

Infant Euthanasia

陳慧瑛(Hui-ying Chen)

指導教授 ： 李瑞全

國立中央大學/文學院/哲學研究所碩士在職專班/碩士(2007年)

摘要

目前，成年人的安樂死在荷蘭是合法的，然而，新生兒的安樂死，卻是兒科醫生和父母親，為了一些有嚴重疼痛和無法治癒疾病的新生兒，所需要解決的問題；荷蘭的格羅寧根協議書，是由內科醫生和律師，嘗試為了承受著不堪忍受的痛苦之嚴重殘疾新生兒，所研擬出生死攸關的第一個決策協議書，其中提議對有不堪忍受痛苦的缺陷嬰兒，可以經由父母同意而執行安樂死，並透過嬰兒的內科醫生，和一位與它的處置無關的醫生，以專業醫學的角度來確認，期能在有安全的措施下，對新生兒安樂死的實踐加以管理，來抑制非法的事件產生；在歐洲國家對於新生兒安樂死的實踐和看法也是一樣的，但卻也都不合法。

嬰兒安樂死是一個生命倫理學中的重要道德問題，因為嬰兒不是道德行動者，卻經常被當成道德行動者看待，但是他們不能理解他們的問題，也無法對他們的行為，或者在他們身上發生的事情負責，所以他們需要代理人，以他們的最大利益模式來為他們做決定。

這篇論文試圖以功利主義、義務論、生命主體、生命神聖論等生命倫理學的原則和理論，來分析和驗證有關新生兒的道德地位問題，及格羅寧根協議書的合理性，並以辛格和恩格爾哈特兩位學者的觀點，對贊成和反對的理由做初步評價的分析。本篇論文期望能為嬰兒安樂死的議題，啟動一個值得探究的開端。

關鍵字

新生兒安樂死 ； 格羅寧根協議書 ； 生命神聖論 ； 道德地位 ； 偏好功利主義 ； 生命主體 ； 安樂死

並列摘要

Adult euthanasia is now legal in Netherlands, however, newborn euthanasia is a pending issue for pediatricians and parents. For there have been some minor percentage of newborns with serious, painful and often incurable diseases. The Groningen Protocol of Netherlands is a first attempt by physicians and attorney to guide the making of life-and-death decision making process for severely ill newborns suffering unbearable pains. It proposes that defective infants with unbearable suffering could be euthanized with the consent of the parents, the confirmation of medical situation by its physician and at least one physician unrelated to its treatment. Though still ruled as illegal, many practice of euthanasia in newborns had under securitization and no physicians involved being accused. There have been wide spread of practice and concurrence in newborn euthanasia among European countries and open practice in such countries like Finland, but legally it is still out ruled even in Netherlands.

Infant euthanasia is an important moral issue of bioethics , for infants are not moral agents and often regarded at most as moral patients. They are not able to understand their issues, nor could they be responsible for their actions or what happens to them. They need surrogates to make decisions for them in terms of their best interests.

This dissertation attempts to analyze and clarify the moral issues surrounding euthanasia in newborns employing principles and theories of biomedical ethics such as utilitarianism, deontological theories, subject-of-life, sanctity of life, and others, for the analysis of the moral status of newborns and the reasonableness of the Groningen Protocol. The pros and cons are presented to give a preliminary assess of the situation especially with the help of the point of views of Peter Singer and H. Tristram Engelhardt . This dissertation only hopes to give a start for the discussion of this issue, rather than a final word on it.

並列關鍵字

sanctity of life ； Euthanasia ； subject-of-life ； Groningen Protocol ； newborn euthanasia ； preference utilitarianism ； moral status

參考文獻

傅緯勳（編），1993，《死亡的尊嚴與生命的尊嚴》，台北：正中書局。

李瑞全（編），2000，《儒家生命倫理學》，台北：鵝湖出版社，再版。

李瑞全，1997，＜「安樂死」之語意分析＞《應用倫理研究通訊》第四期 ，中壢：國立中央大學哲學研究所。

李瑞全，1999，＜儒家論安樂死＞《應用倫理研究通訊》第十二期，中壢：國立中央大學哲學研究所。

林伯殷，2003，《論癌末病人知情權》，中壢：國立中央大學哲學研究所碩士論文。