The ethics of killing and letting die: active and passive euthanasia

In their account of passive euthanasia, Garrard and Wilkinson present arguments that might lead one to overlook significant moral differences between killing and letting die. To kill is not the same as to let die. Similarly, there are significant differences between active and passive euthanasia. Our moral duties differ with regard to them. We are, in general, obliged to refrain from killing each and everyone. We do not have a similar obligation to try (or to continue to try) to prevent each and everyone from dying. In any case, to be morally obliged to persist in trying to prevent their deaths would be different from being morally obliged to refrain from killing all other people even if we had both obligations.     

Euthanasia--again. "Letting die" is not in the patient's best interests: a case for active euthanasia

Recent discussions in the Journal on the subject of euthanasia have relied on intuitive appeals to distinctions traditionally considered to be morally relevant, such as the distinction between acts and omissions (or killing and letting die), or ordinary and extraordinary means of treatment. These discussions remained inconclusive. However, the question of euthanasia no longer remains inconclusive if one adopts the perspective suggested by the United States President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research and by the World Medical Assembly--that a doctor should act in his or her patient's best interests. From this vantage point, it is argued, there will be instances when active euthanasia is the proper cause of action.     

Alberta euthanasia survey: 1. Physicians' opinions about the morality and legalization of active euthanasia.

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the opinions of a sample of Alberta physicians about the morality and legalization of active euthanasia, the determinants of these opinions and the frequency and sources of requests for assistance in active euthanasia. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of a random sample of Alberta physicians, grouped by site and type of practice. SETTING: Alberta. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2002 (46%) of the licensed physicians in Alberta were mailed a 38-item questionnaire in May through July 1991; usable responses were returned by 1391 (69%). RESULTS: Of the respondents 44% did believe that it is sometimes right to practice active euthanasia; 46% did not. Moral acceptance of active euthanasia correlated with type of practice and religious affiliation and activity. In all, 28% of the physicians stated that they would practice active euthanasia if it were legalized, and 51% indicated that they would not. These opinions were significantly related to sex, religious affiliation and activity, and country of graduation. Just over half (51%) of the respondents stated that the law should be changed to permit patients to request active euthanasia. Requests (usually from patients) were reportedly received by 19% of the physicians, 78% of whom received fewer than five. CONCLUSIONS: This survey revealed severely disparate opinions among Alberta physicians about the morality of active euthanasia. In particular, religious affiliation and activity were associated with the polarized opinions. The desire for active euthanasia, as inferred from requests by patients, was not frequent. Overall, there was no strong support expressed by the physicians for the personal practice of legalized active euthanasia. These data will be vital to those involved in health education and public policy formation about active euthanasia in Alberta and the rest of Canada.     

Mr Marty's muddle: a superficial and selective case for euthanasia in Europe

In April 2004 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe debated a report from its Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee (the Marty Report), which questioned the Council of Europe's opposition to legalising euthanasia. This article exposes the Report's flaws, not least its superficiality and selectivity.     

A problem for the idea of voluntary euthanasia.

I question whether, in those cases where physician-assisted suicide is invoked to alleviate unbearable pain and suffering, there can be such a thing as voluntary euthanasia. The problem is that when a patient asks to die under such conditions there is good reason to think that the decision to die is compelled by the pain, and hence not freely chosen. Since the choice to die was not made freely it is inadvisable for physicians to act in accordance with it, for this may be contrary to the patient's genuine wishes. Thus, what were thought to be cases of voluntary euthanasia might actually be instances of involuntary euthanasia.     

Alberta euthanasia survey: 2. Physicians' opinions about the acceptance of active euthanasia as a medical act and the reporting of such practice.

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the opinions of Alberta physicians about the acceptance of active euthanasia as a medical act (the "medicalization" of active euthanasia) and the reporting of colleagues practising active euthanasia, as well as the sociodemographic correlates. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of a random sample of Alberta physicians, grouped by site and type of practice. SETTING: Alberta. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2002 (46%) of the licensed physicians in Alberta were mailed a 38-item questionnaire in May through July 1991; usable responses were returned by 1391 (69%). RESULTS: Although only 44% of the respondents considered active euthanasia morally "right" at least 70% opted to medicalize the practice if it were legal by restricting it to be performed by physicians and to be taught at medical sites. Even though active euthanasia is criminal homicide in Canada, 33% of the physicians stated that they would not report a colleague participating in the act of anyone, and 40% and 60% stated that they would not report a colleague to medical or legal authorities respectively. Acceptance or rejection of active euthanasia as a medical act was strongly related to religious affiliation and activity (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This survey about active euthanasia revealed profound incongruities in the opinions of the sample of Alberta physicians concerning their ethical and social duties in the practice of medicine. These data highlight the need for relevant modifications of health education policies concerning biomedical ethics and physicians' obligations to society.     

Conditions required for a law on active voluntary euthanasia: a survey of nurses' opinions in the Australian Capital Territory

OBJECTIVES: To ascertain which conditions nurses believe should be in a law allowing active voluntary euthanasia (AVE). DESIGN: Survey questionnaire posted to registered nurses (RNs). SETTING: Australian Capital Territory (ACT) at the end of 1996, when active voluntary euthanasia was legal in the Northern Territory. SURVEY SAMPLE: A random sample of 2,000 RNs, representing 54 per cent of the RN population in the ACT. MAIN MEASURES: Two methods were used to look at nurses' opinions. The first involved four vignettes which varied in terms of critical characteristics of each patient who was requesting help to die. The respondents were asked if the law should be changed to allow any of these requests. There was also a checklist of conditions, most of which have commonly been included in Australian proposed laws on AVE. The respondents chose those which they believed should apply in a law on AVE. RESULTS: The response rate was 61%. Support for a change in the law to allow AVE was 38% for a young man with AIDS, 39% for an elderly man with early stage Alzheimer's disease, 44% for a young woman who had become quadriplegic and 71% for a middle-aged woman with metastases from breast cancer. The conditions most strongly supported in any future AVE law were: "second doctor's opinion", "cooling off period", "unbearable protracted suffering", "patient fully informed about illness and treatment" and "terminally ill". There was only minority support for "not suffering from treatable depression", "administer the fatal dose themselves" and "over a certain age". CONCLUSION: Given the lack of support for some conditions included in proposed AVE laws, there needs to be further debate about the conditions required in any future AVE bills.     

An introduction to philosophical medical ethics: the Arthur case

The application of moral theory to decisions involving medical ethics is illustrated by the 1981 case in which a British pediatrician, Dr. Leonard Arthur, was acquitted of attempted murder for prescribing dihydrocodeine and "nursing care only" for a Down's syndrome newborn after the child had been rejected by his mother. Gillon outlines the moral arguments of the "prosecution" and the "defense," and then categorizes their various premises in accordance with concepts of normative ethical theory.     

Philosophical medical ethics. Conclusion: the Arthur case revisited

Throughout his British Medical Journal series of 25 articles on medical ethics, Gillon frequently used the Arthur case (which involved a British physician who faced criminal charges for allowing a Down's syndrome newborn to die) to illustrate moral arguments concerning approaches to clinical dilemmas. He returns to the Arthur case in this essay on the obligations of physicians toward all patients with Down's syndrome. Gillon asks what implications one's view of the moral permissibility of allowing infants with this handicap to die has for the care of adults with the same condition. He concludes that the issue turns on the question of personhood, in particular that of newborns. If newborns are not accorded personhood status, then allowing those with severe handicaps to die may be justified but should not be considered morally different from actively killing them.     

探索经络本质的新途径

作者首先对近20年来我国在经络本质方面的研究工作进行了回顾与评价。指出若长期在宏观(组织解剖学)层面上难以找到经络的物质存在,应努力在多层面、多学科交叉领域系统开展研究;特别是在微观层面,只有充分借助细胞分子生物学、基因组学、生物物理学、生物化学的理论和实验成果,构筑研究平台,方能有所创新和突破。作者强调经络本质的研究重点应放在对调控人体经络生理网络的信息载体上,并且根椐细胞信号转导的理论和相关实验数据指出,当针刺穴位时,细胞所产生的Ca2 振荡(在胞内)和Ca2 波(在胞间)的幅频信号中可能蕴含有经络通路和生理功能调节信息;Ca2 通过与其结合的蛋白(如钙调素CaM等)参与了人体从生殖、代谢、肌缩运动,直至认知、记忆的几乎所有生命过程。因此,作者认为Ca2 以及配合针刺实现在细胞间Ca2 波接力传递的三磷酸肌醇(IP3),可能就是人们长期探寻的调控人体经络网络的信息载体,它们联同在经线上的细胞缝隙连接蛋白,构成了经络的物质基础。作者最后指出了进一步研究的途径和实验方法。     

Medical ethics and the clinical curriculum: a case study.

There are very few medical ethics courses in British medical schools which are a formal part of the clinical curriculum. Such a programme is described in the following, along with the way in which the long-term curriculum committee of the University College and Middlesex Hospital Joint Medical School was persuaded to make it compulsory for first-year students. Pedagogical lessons which have been learned in its planning and implementation are outlined and teaching materials are included concerning student and course assessment which should be useful for others engaged in similar work. Finally, some of the institutional obstacles facing such attempts are discussed, particularly problems concerning timetabling, different types of opposition and the consequent importance of building alliances among clinical teaching staff.     

The ethics of resource allocation: a case study.

The paper analyses the factors involved in a series of decisions by the Newcastle Area Health Authority concerning the future of one of its hospitals, as an illustration of the way in which choices about priorities in the health service are actually made. There is no easy way to resolve the various conflicts of interest, notably in this case the competing demands of acute and chronic medicine. Difficult decisions are made more difficult, however, by the over-rigid division of medicine into compartments, by mistrust between the medical profession and administrators, and by the inordinately long time-scale of the decision-making process. It is suggested that there might be value in acknowledging explicitly that occasional examples of 'heroic medicine' must not be allowed too much influence in shaping public expectations. The paper results from the deliberations of a working group on current medical-ethical problems, set up under the auspices of the Northern Regional Health Authority (I).     

探索经络本质的新途径

作者首先对近20年来我国在经络本质方面的研究工作进行了回顾与评价。指出若长期在宏观(组织解剖学)层面上难以找到经络的物质存在，应努力在多层面、多学科交叉领域系统开展研究；特别是在微观层面，只有充分借助细胞分子生物学、基因组学、生物物理学、生物化学的理论和实验成果，构筑研究平台，方能有所创新和突破。作者强调经络本质的研究重点应放在对调控人体经络生理网络的信息载体上，并且根椐细胞信号转导的理论和相关实验数据指出，当针刺穴位时，细胞所产生的Ca^2 振荡(在胞内)和Ca^2 波(在胞问)的幅频信号中可能蕴含有经络通路和生理功能调节信息；Ca^2 通过与其结合的蛋白(如钙调素CaM等)参与了人体从生殖、代谢、肌缩运动。直至认知、记忆的几乎所有生命过程。因此，作者认为Ca^2 以及配合针刺实现在细胞问Ca^2 波接力传递的三磷酸肌醇(IP3)，可能就是人们长期探寻的调控人体经络网络的信息载体，它们联同在经线上的细胞缝隙连接蛋白，构成了经络的物质基础。作者最后指出了进一步研究的途径和实验方法。     

A national committee for the ethics of research.

A National Committee for the Ethics of Research could consider new questions arising from innovations in research or practice, deal with multi-centre trials, adjudicate when separate local committees give conflicting advice about similar projects, or oversee the work of district committees. The value of each of these functions is assessed and it is concluded that a national committee would be most valuable in providing detailed evaluations of difficult or controversial issues. Though it could offer useful advice about multi-centre trials, local committees would probably wish to continue to consider research involving patients within their health districts even though approval had been given by a central committee. A national committee could usefully oversee the working of a system of quality control throughout the country, but the detailed monitoring of district committees would be done more effectively at regional level.