The Place of Intention in the Moral Assessment of Assisted Suicide and Active Euthanasia (IN: Intending Death: the Ethics of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, edited by T L Beauchamp)

In this essay, the author examines the place of intention in assessing the moral status of assisted suicide, active euthanasia, & letting an incurably ill patient die of his illness. He argues that in those acts intention makes a morally significant difference. This paper is divided into three parts: Part One outlines the meanings of the concepts of intention & intentionality; Part Two discusses the relationship between intention & the Beneficence, Autonomy, & Trust Models of medical ethics; Part Three relates the other components of the moral event to intention as these relationships are exemplified in a spectrum of clinical cases. (47 refs)