Autonomy-centred assisted death laws still avoid expressivism

Jonathon VandenHombergh argues in this journal that the expressivist objection against assisted death cannot be avoided by appealing to autonomy-centred assisted death laws. He claims that these laws need to appeal to a person’s motivations for requesting assisted death and that judgments that these motivations are reasonable will express a message of disrespect for similarly-situated individuals. I argue that VandenHombergh’s article errs in at least two respects. First, certain kinds of motivations are relevant to our assessment of a person being capable of making any autonomous decision. Second, laws can remain silent about motivations for seeking assisted death, easily avoiding the expressivist objection.