Ethics

Is there such a thing as the natural right to make or withdraw consent at any time? Or a right to die based on bodily integrity? Thanks Jude.

Comments

Hello Jude! To begin with your last question, some argue the persons have a right to take their own life or allowed to die (when this might be prevented if there was medical intervention) based on the idea that a person owns her or himself or, more specifically, a person owns his or her body. I suppose this might involve an appeal to bodily integrity insofar as this line of reasoning appeals to the notion that a person has a wholeness or an unimpeded right to do what she wants with her body. In many and perhaps most countries we do not legally allow persons to do anything at all with their bodies, even if no harm comes to others. In the USA, there are limits even when use of the body would benefit others. I cannot go to a hospital in my country and offer to donate all my organs to those in need. Well, I physically can do this, but if I demonstrate to a hospital that I am sane and a free agent and request "Please harvest all my organs now!" I will be politely turned down lest the hospital be charged with homicide. The idea that one owns oneself or one's body has been challenged from time to time. Some have objected that in fact you and your body belong to God and that killing oneself before a "natural death" would violate God's will and nature. Some have a different objection: they do not believe in natural rights, but instead accept some kind of social contract theory. Ownership rights are (on this view) conferred by society as a whole, and so if your society recognizes that each person owns her body, then perhaps ownership is legitimate, but such self-ownership is not in every constitution. Also of note is that even if each person does have self-ownership and the right to die, some argue that intervention may still be permissible if there is reason to think the person is not in their right mind (or sane). I might take LSD and think I want to kill myself by jumping off a building; others would (or I propose they would) be justified in intervening at least until the LSD wears off.

Your first question is a bit tricky. I am not sure whether you are asking about consent in right to die cases. If so, I think most persons think it is perfectly acceptable for someone who, on Monday, signs a Do-Not-Resucitate document, thereby requesting that if she has (for example) a heart attack, she will not be rescued, and yet on Tuesday withdraws the DNR and requests that she be rescued if she has a heart attack. More generally, however, the withdrawing of consent at any time might be difficult to determine. I think most of us (rightly) believe that the right to consent to a sexual act can be withdrawn at any time, and this should be respected. If the other party continues after the consent is withdrawn, there is not love-making, but rape. But imagine you freely decide to fly Delta Airlines from New York to Paris, you willingly / consensually take your seat on the plane, but half way over the Atlantic you announce that you are withdrawing your consent, and demand to be taken back to New York or you threaten to sue Delta for kidnapping on the grounds that they are taking you somewhere without your consent. I do not think the airlines has a duty to turn back to New York, and it might even be fairer to think you are trying to hijack the plane rather than Delta is guilty of kidnapping. This latter case involves processes that, once begun, it is impractical to reverse. And we can imagine other cases when it may not even physically possible (or morally acceptable) to respect the withdrawing of consent. So, for example, imagine you freely consented to donate some bone marrow to your sister. The operation is a success and you and your sister are both healthy after it. But two weeks later you indicate that the consent is withdrawn and you want your bone marrow back. I think any effort to compel your sister to return the bone marrow would rightly be judged to be more of an assault rather than your exercising a natural right to consent how your body and parts of your body are treated.

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