The Problem of Euthanasia and Thanatological Trends in Modern Bioethics: on the Formation of Human-sized Medicine

In modern bioethics, interest in such problems as physician-assisted suicide,euthanasia, thanatopolytics and necropolitics is being actualized. This thanatological trend is increasingly at odds with the norms of classical medical ethics, among which the ban on euthanasia is the basic one. This imperative unambi­guously orients the doctor to restore and activate the life process, preventing its interruption. The exclusion of the ban on euthanasia from the code of bioethicsobjectively likens the therapeutic effect on a living organism to manipulation with an inanimate technical device. From this point of view, the very emergence of bioethics in the 60s–70s of the XX century indicates the transition of classical medicine to technomedicine, and current thanatological trends indicate the ongoing transformation of technomedicine into thanatomedicine. Overcoming the current situation encourages a rethinking of the phenomenon of life in order to develop a new version of medicine that functions according to human-sized parameters. Philosophy, as the only discipline of the scientific series with the appropriate synthesizing potential, should take the initiative to move to solving such a large-scale task.