Book contents
- Clinical Ethics in Anesthesiology
- Clinical Ethics in Anesthesiology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1 Consent and refusal
- 2 End-of-life issues
- 15 The principle of double effect in palliative care: euthanasia by another name?
- 16 Surgical interventions near the end of life: “therapeutic trials”
- 17 Withholding and withdrawing life support in the intensive care unit
- 18 Discontinuing pacemakers, ventricular assist devices, and implanted cardioverter-defibrillators in end-of-life care
- 19 Brain death
- 20 Ethical issues in organ donation after cardiac death
- 21 Revising the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act – the role of physicians in shaping legislation
- 22 Physician aid-in-dying and euthanasia
- 3 Pain management
- 4 Research and publication
- 5 Practice issues
- 6 Anesthesiologists, the state, and society
- Index
22 - Physician aid-in-dying and euthanasia
from 2 - End-of-life issues
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
Book contents
- Clinical Ethics in Anesthesiology
- Clinical Ethics in Anesthesiology
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1 Consent and refusal
- 2 End-of-life issues
- 15 The principle of double effect in palliative care: euthanasia by another name?
- 16 Surgical interventions near the end of life: “therapeutic trials”
- 17 Withholding and withdrawing life support in the intensive care unit
- 18 Discontinuing pacemakers, ventricular assist devices, and implanted cardioverter-defibrillators in end-of-life care
- 19 Brain death
- 20 Ethical issues in organ donation after cardiac death
- 21 Revising the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act – the role of physicians in shaping legislation
- 22 Physician aid-in-dying and euthanasia
- 3 Pain management
- 4 Research and publication
- 5 Practice issues
- 6 Anesthesiologists, the state, and society
- Index
Summary
This chapter presents a case study which analyzes whether physicians can end a patient's life at his or her request (as in euthanasia), or otherwise collaborate with the ending of life at a patient's initiative (as in assisted suicide). A request for euthanasia or assisted suicide is an emotionally taxing situation, where a thoughtful and respectful response is particularly important. Requirements for legal euthanasia or assisted suicide include that patients need to be capable of decision making and persistently requesting death, and that there be otherwise intractable suffering. Requests for aid-in-dying should be taken seriously and carefully listened to. Screening for and treatment of problematic symptoms and depression may lead to withdrawal of the request. When a request for aid-in-dying persists and no life-sustaining treatments are being employed, the response will depend on the legal status of euthanasia or assisted suicide, and on the physician's own convictions.
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- Clinical Ethics in AnesthesiologyA Case-Based Textbook, pp. 128 - 134Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010