This Is 42
“If I lose my mind, just kill me.”
Co-Hosts Jay Shapiro and Coleman Hughes discuss the philosophical borders and ethical complications of Medically Assisted Dying with Steven Pinker, cognitive psychologist, linguist, and best selling author of Enlightenment Now.
Guest: Steven Pinker, cognitive psychologist, linguist, and best selling author of Enlightenment Now.
#StevenPinker #Philosophy
Source
Pinker @ 06:55
Brilliant podcast. Found it recently thanks to The Partially Examined Life, and I really love it. Keep em coming!
Love this podcast. The low view count is baffling.
Why is coleman's audio so low? Can barely hear him.
If you limit the discussion to the most strict conditions possible (only people with short-term terminal medical conditions with concrete diagnoses, where mental illness isn't a factor, patient has time to consider, review process by experts) then I think most people agree in principle. But this is exactly what happens when a bunch of liberally inclined, areligious people have these sorts of discussions – absolutely no offense meant. Even if we want to dispose of principle/virtue based ethics (as is suggested here), the real consequences of such a huge change in the complicated world of modern medicine cannot be glossed over so carelessly. If you want to have a substantial discussion you need to include other perspectives. Even a short google search would provide ample grounds for more useful discussion. The slippery slope doesn't have to lead to Auschwitz to be worth considering. It might just lead to a world thats slightly worse than what we have now.
Edit: Around 1:09:00 Steven brings up the slippery slope argument around abortion and says how countries haven't turned to infanticide which shows critics were wrong. Is he assuming that we are today at the end of the cycle of change? The whole point of claiming a slippery slope is that things will escalate over some sort of time period. As it certainly seems the case that many on the left side of American politics are actively engaged in expanding the limits on abortion, Steven's analysis seems pretty poor. Laws like the RHA in New York show that this issue hasn't reached politcal equilibrium as yet.