PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Euthanasia, Passive”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources
PubMed2001

When withdrawal of life-sustaining care does more than allow death to take its course: the dilemma of left ventricular assist devices.

BACKGROUND: Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are a relatively new technology that is increasingly used to preserve cardiac function. These devices work by a mechanism that may complicate ethical decision-making for patients who subsequently lose decision-making capacity and are no longer considered transplant candidates. METHODS: Using a clinical case from our medical center, we explored the complex ethical issues associated with the discontinuation of LVAD therapy by discussing how this device is distinct from the withdrawal of other treatments. RESULTS: While halting an implanted LVAD may permit a patient to die, the deactivated device itself may contribute to patient death due to the potential for blood backflow and pooling, as well as the disruption of heart contractility. Inadequate informed consent and failure to appoint a surrogate decision-maker in advance of the implant procedure resulted in a complex ethical dilemma for the patient's family and the medical team. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians and families must consider the benefits and burdens of LVAD therapy as they do when considering removal of other life-sustaining treatment. The informed consent process associated with LVADs as bridging technology should include extensive consideration of the purpose of the device, future circumstances in which it may be halted, and how such situations would be recognized and handled. Appointment of a surrogate decision-maker before the surgical procedure is essential.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Do humans own themselves ? Questions concerning their self-determination and free disposition of self.

The debate about voluntary euthanasia arises (essentially) from a fundamental anthropological question: do humans own themselves? An answer to this question is developed which starts out from the foundational ethic of Emmanuel Levinas. The metaphysics of the countenance of the Other in Levinas is then related to Karl Rahner's description of God as the absolute enigma which is fated towards us. God, understood as that enigma, is experienced for us concretely in our relationship to the countenance of our neighbor, the other human being. Our being thus referred to the absolutely Other in the countenance of the other human grounds not only the non-disposability of that other human being, but also the non-disposability of myself. This is the decisive point for how one should think about euthanasia. In contrast to the (so-called) voluntary euthanasia, accompaniment in dying takes account of that dialogical constitution of man.

Catholicism↗