Thursday, August 20, 2009

Euthanasia

I wanted to share this with you all.

Hospice Physician in the comments section of last Friday's post, helped me clarify my paraphrased definition of euthanasia. 

"To address your quote below:

'when a medical practitioner directly brings about death by administering medicine to the patient'

This is true but to clarify even more, euthanasia is a deliberate act with the intention of causing death in a patient. There is an ethical principal called the "Rule of Double Effect" which states, a medical practitioner is not acting unethically by giving pain medication, for example, that may lead to death, if the intent is not to cause death but to relieve pain/shortness of breath or promote comfort."


I'm always a fan of further clarity. Thanks Hospice Physician!

No comments: