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In terminally ill individuals who would otherwise end their own lives, active voluntary euthanasia (AVE) can be seen as life-extending rather than life-shortening. Accordingly, AVE supports key pro-euthanasia arguments (appeals to autonomy and beneficence) and meets certain sanctity of life objections. This paper examines the extent to which a terminally ill individual's wish to donate organs after death contributes to those life-extension arguments. It finds that, in a terminally ill individual who wishes to avoid experiencing life he considers to be not worth living, and who also wishes to donate organs after death, AVE maximizes the likelihood that such donations will occur. The paper finds that the wish to donate organs strengthens the appeals to autonomy and beneficence, and fortifies the meeting of certain sanctity of life objections, achieved by life-extension arguments, and also generates appeals to justice that form novel life-extension arguments in favour of AVE in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Golden Rule ("what you want done [or not done] to yourself, do [or don't do] to others") is the most widely accepted summary statement of human morality, and even today it continues to have philosophical supporters. This article argues that the Golden Rule suffers from four faults, the first two related to the ethics of justice and the second two related to the ethics of benevolence. One, it fails to explain how to deal with non-reciprocation. Two, it fails to make clear that my obligations are obligations regardless of how I would wish to be treated by others. Three, it lacks any special value in explaining the right occasions for benevolence. And, four, it has no power to motivate benevolence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What correspondence from Dante's Commedia and De Monarchia to Kant's theories on universal peace? If we discover a sommo poeta who was also a greatest theologian (although not exclusively so), in the identity between faith and life experienced by the Florentine author and transmitted in his works, there appears a conception of the world (general), where the faith of the individual (particular) is reflected. If a theological structure, in Dante's there is a precursor of the palingenetic experience of the inner journey, also in Kant the analysis of the concept of good leads to a sort of innate (and aprioristic) divine conception. Thus, in this similitude, we discover the analogy between the two thinkers, sealed in the hope and the wish for a single kingdom/state that allows all human kind to live as peaceful brothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not uncommon for families to wait in hopes of receiving test results that show a treatable mutation, such as in the case of lung cancer. Waiting for such test results can distract families from focusing on a patient's current pain and suffering, especially when families experience heightened emotions and anticipatory grief. The substituted judgement standard can be helpful in resolving ethical dilemmas by encouraging families to think about what decision a patient would have made if competent, thus preventing unnecessary pain and suffering. This case study sheds light on how the substituted judgement standard was used with a patient's family and how the family's hope for a treatable mutation affected their perception of the patient's clinical condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]