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  3. A number of ethical questions cluster around both ends of the human life span. Whether abortion is morally justifiable has popul

A number of ethical questions cluster around both ends of the human life span. Whether abortion is morally justifiable has popul

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问题     A number of ethical questions cluster around both ends of the human life span. Whether abortion is morally justifiable has popularly been seen as depending on our answer to the question "When does a human life begin?" Many philosophers believe this to be the wrong question to ask because it suggests that there might be a factual answer that we can somehow discover through advances in science.
    【F1】Instead, these philosophers think we need to ask what it is that makes killing a human being wrong and then consider whether these characteristics, whatever they might be, apply to the fetus in an abortion. There is no generally agreed upon answer, yet some philosophers have presented surprisingly strong arguments to the effect that not only the fetus but even the newborn infant has no right to life.
    Such views have been hotly contested, especially by those who claim that all human life, irrespective of its characteristics, must be regarded as sacrosanct. The task for those who defend the sanctity of human life is to explain why human life, no matter what its characteristics, is specially worthy of protection.【F2】Explanation could no doubt be provided in terms of such traditional Christian doctrines as that all humans are made in the image of God or that all humans have an immortal soul. In the current debate, however, the opponents of abortion have eschewed religious arguments of this kind without finding a convincing secular alternative.
    Somewhat similar issues are raised by euthanasia when it is non-voluntary, as, for example, in the case of severely disabled newborn infants.【F3】Euthanasia, however, can be voluntary, and this has brought it support from some who hold that the state should not interfere with the free, informed choices of its citizens in matters that do not cause others harm.【F4】Opposition to voluntary euthanasia has centred on practical matters such as the difficulty of adequate safeguards and on the argument that it would lead to a "slippery slope" that would take us to non-voluntary euthanasia and eventually to the compulsory involuntary killing of those the state considers to be socially undesirable.
    【F5】Philosophers have also canvassed the moral significance of the distinction between killing and allowing to die, which is reflected in the fact that many physicians will allow a patient with an incurable condition to die when life could still be prolonged, but they will not take active steps to end the patient’s life.
【F4】
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答案反对实行安乐死关注两方面问题。一方面涉及一些实际问题，诸如采取适当安全措施存在具体困难；另一方面是有一种论断认为，实行自愿安乐死将可能导致出现一种难以控制的“道德滑坡”，这种“道德滑坡”将来可能把我们引向实行不自愿安乐死，最后会强迫杀死那些本人不想死，而国家认为社会不愿要的人。
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