Confucian ethic of death with dignity and its contemporary relevance (Physician assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia in a religious or quasi-religious tradition)

This paper advances three claims. First, according to contemporary Western advocates of physician-assisted-suicide and voluntary euthanasia, "death wi th dignity" is understood negatively as bringing about death to avoid or pr event indignity, that is, to avoid a degrading existence. Second, there is a similar morally affirmative view on death with dignity in ancient China, in classical Confucianism in particular. third, there is consonance as well as dissonance between these two ethics of death with dignity, such that th e Confucian perspective would regard the argument for physician-assisted-su icide and voluntary euthanasia as less than compelling because of the latte r's impoverished vision of human life.