Euthanasia as life-extension

The permissibility of euthanasia as a legal, as well as moral, practice often meets with objections on the grounds that its primary function is one that shortens life. But have we, in certain cases, been looking at euthanasia from entirely the wrong perspective? What if euthanasia were seen not as a practice that shortened life but as one that sought to extend life? This might, at first, seem paradoxical. However, there are cases where individuals have sought euthanasia on precisely these grounds. Perhaps the most famous of these is that of the Belgian Paralympian athlete, Marieke Vervoort, who had a known degenerative condition that could have incapacitated her long before the same condition would have led to her death. By allowing a pre-established agreement for voluntary active euthanasia to be carried out by medical professionals on reaching a particular state of decline, individuals in such circumstances can live much longer lives than they otherwise would have if suicide was their only other option to end their life while still possessing the capacity to do so. This chapter examines the ways in which we might conceive viewing euthanasia as life-extending and how this might affect our approach to regulating it as a medical practice.