Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword by Daniel Callahan
- Introduction
- 1 Euthanasia and the value of life
- 2 A philosophical case against euthanasia
- 3 The philosophical case against the philosophical case against euthanasia
- 4 The fragile case for euthanasia: a reply to John Harris
- 5 Final thoughts on final acts
- 6 Misunderstanding the case against euthanasia: response to Harris's first reply
- 7 Euthanasia: back to the future
- 8 The case for legalising voluntary euthanasia
- 9 Extracts from the Report of the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics
- 10 Walton, Davies, Boyd and the legalization of euthanasia
- 11 Where there is hope, there is life: a view from the hospice
- 12 Letting vegetative patients die
- 13 A case for sometimes tube-feeding patients in persistent vegetative state
- 14 Dilemmas at life's end: a comparative legal perspective
- 15 Physician-assisted suicide: the last bridge to active voluntary euthanasia
- 16 Euthanasia in the Netherlands: sliding down the slippery slope?
- 17 Advance directives: a legal and ethical analysis
- 18 Theological aspects of euthanasia
- Index
11 - Where there is hope, there is life: a view from the hospice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword by Daniel Callahan
- Introduction
- 1 Euthanasia and the value of life
- 2 A philosophical case against euthanasia
- 3 The philosophical case against the philosophical case against euthanasia
- 4 The fragile case for euthanasia: a reply to John Harris
- 5 Final thoughts on final acts
- 6 Misunderstanding the case against euthanasia: response to Harris's first reply
- 7 Euthanasia: back to the future
- 8 The case for legalising voluntary euthanasia
- 9 Extracts from the Report of the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics
- 10 Walton, Davies, Boyd and the legalization of euthanasia
- 11 Where there is hope, there is life: a view from the hospice
- 12 Letting vegetative patients die
- 13 A case for sometimes tube-feeding patients in persistent vegetative state
- 14 Dilemmas at life's end: a comparative legal perspective
- 15 Physician-assisted suicide: the last bridge to active voluntary euthanasia
- 16 Euthanasia in the Netherlands: sliding down the slippery slope?
- 17 Advance directives: a legal and ethical analysis
- 18 Theological aspects of euthanasia
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, ‘euthanasia’ is used to describe:
The compassion–motivated, deliberate, rapid and painless termination of the life of someone afflicted with an incurable and progressive disease. A suffering and terminally ill person is not allowed to die — his or her life is terminated.
(Roy and Rapin 1994)In the course of the chapter, I shall make the following points:
Patients do not always receive adequate pain and symptom relief or, with their families, adequate psychological and practical support.
Hope is an essential part of hospice/palliative care, and stretches far beyond cure and survival.
Provided there is ‘good enough’ pain and symptom relief, suicide and a desire ‘to end it all’ are generally associated with a transient mood disorder, a depressive illness or delirium (confusion).
Careful evaluation is necessary whenever a patient expresses suicidal thoughts or a desire ‘to end it all’.
‘Good enough’ pain relief is virtually always possible in patients with incurable cancer. In patients where pain persists, the goal becomes ‘mastery over pain’.
Other distressing symptoms can also be alleviated, often considerably. Changes in the patient's way of life, however, may well be necessary.
At the end of life, allowing nature to take its course and not intervening with ‘heroic’ measures is good practice both medically and ethically.
[…]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Euthanasia ExaminedEthical, Clinical and Legal Perspectives, pp. 141 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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