What, According to Rachels, Is the Principal Reason That Active

question 491

Multiple Choice

What, according to Rachels, is the principal reason that active euthanasia might be preferable in certain cases to passive euthanasia?

• A) Being allowed to die can be a relatively slow and painful process, whereas someone may be humanely killed quickly and relatively painlessly.
• B) Mere cessation of treatment may give the patient and/or his or her family implausible hope of recovery prior to the patient's ultimate death.
• C) Passive euthanasia may be much more costly than active euthanasia since the patient may linger for days before his or her death.
• D) Doctors are more likely to be confident that all treatment options have been exhausted before agreeing to actively euthanize a patient.

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Definitions:

Probabilities

The measure of the likelihood that an event will occur, expressed as a number between 0 and 1.

Coin Toss

A simple randomness procedure used to decide between two equally probable outcomes with the flip of a coin.

Expected Value

The predicted value of a variable, calculated as the sum of all possible values each multiplied by the probability of its occurrence.

Expected Value

An average value determined by weighing all potential outcomes of a random variable according to their likelihood of happening.