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Results for “Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary”

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PubMed1986

Distinguishing between active and passive euthanasia.

The standard ways of distinguishing between active and passive euthanasia, act versus omission, and removal of ordinary versus removal of extraordinary care, do not have any clear moral significance. We have used particular aspects of the physician-patient relationship to make a morally significant distinction between active and passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is defined as the physician's abiding by the rational valid refusal of life-sustaining treatment of a patient or his surrogate decision-maker. Understanding passive euthanasia in this way makes it clear why, everything else being equal, there is no morally significant difference between discontinuing a treatment and not starting it, for example, taking a patient off a respirator versus not putting him on in the first place. It also makes clear why stopping the feeding and hydration of some patients is not merely morally permissible but is morally required. Patients may make a rational valid refusal of food and fluids just as they may of other kinds of life support, and what patients rationally refuse when competent holds its force when they become incompetent. By basing the distinction between active and passive euthanasia on the universally recognized moral force of a rational valid refusal, we have provided a clear foundation for the moral significance of this distinction. Our way of making the distinction preserves for patients the control over their lives that has sometimes been unjustifiably taken from them. It also eases the burden on doctors who no longer are forced to make use of ad hoc and confused distinctions in which they justifiably have little faith.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aged↗
PubMed1980

Ethical decisions in the care of a patient terminally ill with metastatic cancer.

A case of a patient with metastatic cancer raises the issues of patient refusal of treatment, euthanasia, and unintended side effects of therapy. For each management dilemma, there are relevant ethical and legal considerations, justifications, and conclusions. In addition, psychological and social influences on the decision process tend to limit deliberation.

Decision Making↗
PubMed1978

The ethics of terminal care.

The widely used notion of dignity is questioned as an adequate ideal for care of terminally ill persons. Instead of dying with dignity, the essential ethical components of dying with a sense of worth are proposed as comprising truly humane and personal care.

Death↗
PubMed1995

The final autonomy.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Euthanasia, Active↗
PubMed1994

Mediated realism and the representation of a health care controversy.

Psychologists have recently identified "situated cognition" as an important issue for educators across disciplines. Accordingly, instructional technologists have been working on ways to make classroom materials more true-to-life and affectively engaging. In this article I review a study designed to investigate the ways in which differing realism conditions (delivered through interactive video) influenced users' understanding of the issue of euthanasia and the case of Dax Cowart. Based on the study's findings, I raise the issue of a possible trade-off between traditional values of objectivity and authenticity.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Active euthanasia--time for a decision.

There has been renewed interest in the moral arguments surrounding euthanasia. Some patients are now apprehensive of advanced medical technology which they fear may result in a prolonged and undignified death. In the current situation of scarce resources for health care, both patients and doctors could be coerced into considering active euthanasia if it was legally available. In this paper it is argued that doctors now need to make a clear statement rejecting active euthanasia but affirming that in certain cases passive euthanasia, or letting die, may be morally justifiable.

Decision Making↗