Abortion and euthanasia: Contemporary issues on the limits of life

Abstract

This article analyzes the controversy surrounding what can be established as the limit of life, from the presumption that the frontier marks between life and death involve cultural, social, religious and political issues referred to personhood management. Debates about abortion and euthanasia make it clear that moral concepts on individual rights can be standardized in each context. These themes reveal - beyond new medical technology creation and development, focused on assisted fertilization, fetal medicine and maintaining life artificially, either for premature babies or patients without possibilities of cure - values and viewpoints, often opposed. From the survey of law projects, presented within Brazilian legislative field, opposite positions were revealed, from religion and defenders of individual autonomy, which illustrates the contemporary dilemmas on the limits of life.