Having a possible escape to end life at your own timing offers reassurance and changes the perspective on current and prospective suffering

By Martijn Hagens. In a recent blog, Ben Colburn discusses that ‘the option of assisted dying is good for you even if you don’t want to die. In the paper related to that blog, he argues that “if someone knows they have a (potentially) acceptable escape, it changes the character of the choice set as a […]

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Why care about severity?

By Mathias Barra, Mari Broqvist, Erik Gustavsson, Martin Henriksson, Niklas Juth, Lars Sandman, and Carl Tollef Solberg In an ideal world, everyone one of us would receive medical treatments in a timely manner, in the best possible way. There would be an unlimited number of organs available for transplantation. There would be enough health workers […]

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Can survival be a harm? The German Federal Court of Justice rules on a claim for damages after life-sustaining treatment

Ulrich Pfeifer and Ruth Horn. Should it be permissible to convict a doctor who has performed life-sustaining treatment (LST) without medical indication? At first sight, the answer seems obvious: a medical intervention is only lawful if there is 1) valid consent and 2) a medical necessity that is medical indication. In the absence of either […]

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Euthanasia, palliative opioid use and palliative sedation: A rejoinder

By Thomas David Riisfeldt. One of my recent essays has generated a considerable amount of critique which I was fortunate to be able to explore in my essay ‘A response to critics: Weakening the ethical distinction between euthanasia, palliative opioid use and palliative sedation’. I will briefly comment on some of these points here. I […]

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“But it’s not my fault”: what not to say when confronting medical errors (even if it’s true)

By Daniel Tigard. Healthcare professionals are only human—at least, for now. As such, they are prone to simple oversights, or even occasional acts of gross negligence. What makes errors in medical contexts especially concerning is, of course, that any failure can have devastating effects. Patients come to healthcare facilities needing attention for some ailment and […]

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