-
Cuadernos de Bioetica : Revista Oficial... 2019
Topics: Bioethical Issues; Euthanasia; Humans; Spain
PubMed: 30742449
DOI: No ID Found -
Nursing Ethics Feb 2020Medical Assistance in Dying, also known as euthanasia or assisted suicide, is expanding internationally. Canada is the first country to permit Nurse Practitioners to... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Medical Assistance in Dying, also known as euthanasia or assisted suicide, is expanding internationally. Canada is the first country to permit Nurse Practitioners to provide euthanasia. These developments highlight the need for nurses to reflect upon the moral and ethical issues that euthanasia presents for nursing practice.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this article is to provide a narrative review of the ethical arguments surrounding euthanasia in relationship to nursing practice.
METHODS
Systematic search and narrative review. Nine electronic databases were searched using vocabulary developed from a stage 1 search of Medline and CINAHL. Articles that analysed a focused ethical question related to euthanasia in the context of nursing practice were included. Articles were synthesized to provide an overview of the literature of nursing ethics and euthanasia.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
This review was conducted as per established scientific guidelines. We have tried to be fair and respectful to the authors discussed.
FINDINGS
Forty-three articles were identified and arranged inductively into four themes: arguments from the nature of nursing; arguments from ethical principles, concepts and theories; arguments for moral consistency; and arguments from the nature of the social good. Key considerations included nursing's moral ontology, the nurse-patient relationship, potential impact on the profession, ethical principles and theories, moral culpability for acts versus omissions, the role of intention and the nature of the society in which euthanasia would be enacted. In many cases, the same assumptions, values, principles and theories were used to argue both for and against euthanasia.
DISCUSSION
The review identified a relative paucity of literature in light of the expansion of euthanasia internationally. However, the literature provided a fulsome range of positions for nurses to consider as they reflect on their own participation in euthanasia. Many of the arguments reviewed were not nursing-specific, but rather are relevant across healthcare disciplines. Arguments explicitly grounded within the nature of nursing and nurse-patient relationships warrant further exploration.
Topics: Ethics, Nursing; Euthanasia; Humans; Nurse Practitioners; Nursing Care; Suicide, Assisted
PubMed: 31113279
DOI: 10.1177/0969733019845127 -
BMC Medical Ethics May 2020Euthanasia can be thought of as being either active or passive; but the precise definition of "passive euthanasia" is not always clear. Though all passive euthanasia...
BACKGROUND
Euthanasia can be thought of as being either active or passive; but the precise definition of "passive euthanasia" is not always clear. Though all passive euthanasia involves the withholding of life-sustaining treatment, there would appear to be some disagreement about whether all such withholding should be seen as passive euthanasia.
MAIN TEXT
At the core of the disagreement is the question of the importance of an intention to bring about death: must one intend to bring about the death of the patient in order for withholding treatment to count as passive euthanasia, as some sources would indicate, or does withholding in which death is merely foreseen belong to that category? We may expect that this unclarity would be important in medical practice, in law, and in policy. The idea that withholding life-sustaining treatment is passive euthanasia is traced to James Rachels's arguments, which lend themselves to the claim that passive euthanasia does not require intention to end life. Yet the argument here is that Rachels's arguments are flawed, and we have good reasons to think that intention is important in understanding the moral nature of actions. As such, we should reject any understanding of passive euthanasia that does not pay attention to intent.
SHORT CONCLUSION
James Rachels's work on active and passive euthanasia has been immensely influential; but this is an influence that we ought to resist.
Topics: Euthanasia; Euthanasia, Active; Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary; Euthanasia, Passive; Humans; Intention; Withholding Treatment
PubMed: 32410605
DOI: 10.1186/s12910-020-00481-7 -
The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 1992The principles of self-determination and individual well-being support the use of voluntary euthanasia by those who do not have moral or professional objections to it....
The principles of self-determination and individual well-being support the use of voluntary euthanasia by those who do not have moral or professional objections to it. Opponents of this posture cite the ethical wrongness of the act itself and the folly of any public or legal policy permitting euthanasia. Positive consequences of making euthanasia legally permissible respect the autonomy of competent patients desiring it, expand the population of patients who can choose the option, and release the dying patient from otherwise prolonged suffering and agony. Potentially bad consequences of permitting euthanasia include the undermining of the "moral center" of medicine by allowing physicians to kill, the weakening of society's commitment to provide optimal care for dying patients, and, of greatest concern, the "slippery slope" argument. The evaluation of the arguments leads to support for euthanasia, with its performance not incompatible with a physician's professional commitment.
Topics: Beneficence; Ethics, Medical; Euthanasia; Euthanasia, Active; Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary; Humans; Intention; Personal Autonomy; Physician's Role; Public Policy; Risk Assessment; Social Values; Stress, Psychological; Trust; United States; Wedge Argument; Withholding Treatment
PubMed: 1519375
DOI: No ID Found -
BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) Oct 1992
Topics: Ethics, Medical; Euthanasia; Humans
PubMed: 1458083
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.305.6859.951-d -
BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) Aug 1994
Topics: Advisory Committees; Coercion; Depressive Disorder; Editorial Policies; Ethics; Euthanasia; Euthanasia, Active; Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary; Euthanasia, Passive; Freedom; Homicide; Humans; Intention; International Cooperation; Internationality; Jurisprudence; Motivation; Netherlands; Organizational Policy; Pain; Palliative Care; Personal Autonomy; Physicians; Public Opinion; Public Policy; Publishing; Quality of Life; Societies; Socioeconomic Factors; Terminal Care; Treatment Refusal; United Kingdom; Value of Life; Vulnerable Populations; Wedge Argument; Withholding Treatment
PubMed: 11654137
DOI: No ID Found -
Journal of Medical Ethics Feb 2005The idea of passive euthanasia has recently been attacked in a particularly clear and explicit way by an "Ethics Task Force" established by the European Association of... (Review)
Review
The idea of passive euthanasia has recently been attacked in a particularly clear and explicit way by an "Ethics Task Force" established by the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) in February 2001. It claims that the expression "passive euthanasia" is a contradiction in terms and hence that there can be no such thing. This paper critically assesses the main arguments for the Task Force's view. Three arguments are considered. Firstly, an argument based on the (supposed) wrongness of euthanasia and the (supposed) permissibility of what is often called passive euthanasia. Secondly, the claim that passive euthanasia (so-called) cannot really be euthanasia because it does not cause death. And finally, a consequence based argument which appeals to the (alleged) bad consequences of accepting the category of passive euthanasia.We conclude that although healthcare professionals' nervousness about the concept of passive euthanasia is understandable, there is really no reason to abandon the category provided that it is properly and narrowly understand and provided that "euthanasia reasons" for withdrawing or withholding life-prolonging treatment are carefully distinguished from other reasons.
Topics: Attitude of Health Personnel; Ethical Analysis; Euthanasia, Passive; Humans; Motivation; Terminology as Topic; Wedge Argument
PubMed: 15681666
DOI: 10.1136/jme.2003.005777 -
Revista Espanola de Sanidad... 2020Analyse the evolution of opinions about euthanasia by the general public and clinical physicians from 1995 to 2019 and their influence at the present time.
OBJECTIVE
Analyse the evolution of opinions about euthanasia by the general public and clinical physicians from 1995 to 2019 and their influence at the present time.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
Bibliographical review based on relevance and quality of publications in open access and academic access platforms. Main surveys review of public and private institutions. Congress and Senate Official Journal Sessions.
RESULTS
Recent surveys show that clinicians support the regulation of euthanasia. This position matches the general public's belief, which has grown steadily in recent decades.
DISCUSSION
Social and clinical support for the regulation of euthanasia has been fundamental. In the last two decades political parties have changed their positions, thus creating a window of opportunity.
Topics: Attitude of Health Personnel; Attitude to Health; Euthanasia; Government Regulation; Health Care Surveys; Humans; Physicians; Spain; Suicide, Assisted
PubMed: 33300934
DOI: 10.18176/resp.00020 -
Revista Medica de Chile Dec 2016Euthanasia is a complex medical procedure. Even though end of life decisions are common situations in health practice, there is a lack of consensus about their... (Review)
Review
Euthanasia is a complex medical procedure. Even though end of life decisions are common situations in health practice, there is a lack of consensus about their terminology. In this manuscript, the main concepts about this issue are defined and delimited; including active and passive euthanasia and limitation of therapeutic effort. Then, a revision is made about the international experience on euthanasia, to then go through the Chiles history in euthanasia and the populations opinion. In Chile, euthanasia is an act that has been removed from the social dialogue and legislation. In order to have an open discussion in our population about the issue, the debate has to be opened to the citizens, accompanied by clear medical information about the procedure.
Topics: Chile; Euthanasia, Active; Euthanasia, Passive; Humans; Public Opinion
PubMed: 28393995
DOI: 10.4067/S0034-98872016001200012 -
British Medical Journal (Clinical... Mar 1987
Topics: Aged; Brain Diseases; Brain Injuries; Chronic Disease; Decision Making; Dementia; Ethics; Euthanasia; Euthanasia, Active; Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary; Humans; Life Support Care; Nursing Homes; Patient Care; Quality of Life; Right to Die; Stress, Psychological; Terminal Care; United Kingdom; Value of Life; Wedge Argument
PubMed: 11652497
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.294.6574.767