In October 2022, we started a new research project funded by Poland's National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) as part of the Preludium BIS call, number: UMO-2021/43/O/HS1/02951; 1st of October 2022 - 30th of September 2026. PI of the project: dr hab. Tomasz Żuradzki, prof. UJ. PhD student: Maciej Piwowarski.

 

 

The main goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive, conceptual framework for classification of various medical procedures that can be performed to bring about, or in some cases, only slightly hasten, the death of the patient. Those procedures shall be hereby referred to as aid-in-dying. In the most broad sense, they include: active voluntary euthanasia, assisted suicide, as well as – what can be deemed more controversial – palliative sedation, lethal analgesia, and withholding or withdrawing life-saving treatment. This preliminary classification already hints at the philosophical hypothesis of the project: it will be argued that there is no significant moral difference between all of those procedures if they are an expression of the will of the patient. The primary task of the PhD student shall be to test this hypothesis, and to further develop it if necessary. The project aims to present a thorough critical analysis of the philosophical background of various legislation concerning aid-in-dying. It will be the first project so far to systematically review underlying philosophical presuppositions of present regulations of assisted dying.