Hume e Kant: Sobre a moralidade do suicídio

Abstract

Among the central problems of bioethics are those linked to the frontiers of life. Issues such as abortion, assisted suicide, voluntary euthanasia occupy considerable space for the concerns of this discipline. This paper aims to contribute to the debates on one of these borders. The end of life can often come with dilemmas that demand an ethical response from us, and the role of bioethics is to formulate these questions and seek answers based on the best of what our civilization has built as ethical thinking. Philosophy is undoubtedly the starting point for this end. This paper discusses the contributions of David Hume and Immanuel Kant, two of the greatest Western thinkers, to the debate about the morality of suicide. It is a work of philosophy, rather than a work of bioethics. However this seems to me an artificial division. The arguments developed by the two philosophers are central to illuminating the contemporary debate on assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.