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The case of Edward Downes, a renowned composer and conductor who traveled to Switzerland with his wife to commit suicide with the assistance of a Swiss group named Dignitas. The document explores the conflicting lenses of moral absolutism and moral relativism and argues for the latter. The author's opinion is that assisted suicide could be right or wrong depending on an individual's standpoint or perspective. The author believes that Downes' decision to end his life was rational and dignified.
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Briefly summarize the case of Edward Downes. What is your opinion of his decision to end his life? Why?What are the challenges to the relativist position? Which one resonates with you the most and why? Edward Downes was a renowned composer as well as a conductor. Downes was a Briton. According to the case, Downes with his wife, Joan, traveled Swiss to commit suicide. They had been married for more than 54 years. A certain Swiss group named Dignitas assisted them in ending their lives. The main reason behind Downes suicide was that his wife had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after which she was given a few weeks to live. Downes thought that there was no use of living without his wife. The main reason for him to travel to Swiss was that assisted death was illegal in the UK. It was decided by the UK authorities to not punish their son even though he accompanied them. According to the case there are two main conflicting lenses, moral absolutism and moral relativism. My opinion is based on moral relativism which is an ethical view point that all moral judgements are true or false based on a certain standpoint and that no perspective is uniquely advantaged over all others. In my opinion assisted suicide could be wrong or right depending on an individual’s standpoint or perspective. My standpoint is that the choice of Downes to end his life was right. This is because even though he was not terminally ill, his choice of ending his life was completely rational and he was not coerced by any person to do so. Also, I think that he made the right decision since he decided to die with dignity because he felt that life would be worthless without his wife. Thus, instead of living a miserable life in the absence of his wife, it was a good decision to commit suicide and die a dignified death.
There are many challenges to the relativist position. The ones resonating with me are that the relativist position deflects from the main purpose of having a moral theory, making moral judgments on a particular subject to rational analysis rather than individual preferences. Unlike other moral and ethical theories that have a certain criterion or criteria for defining if an action is right or wrong, according to this theory, action would be defined to be right or wrong based on individual preference; this goes against the need for having a moral or ethical theory. Another challenge associated with the relativist position is that it gives no single traction for criticizing other people based on their actions and choices.