A variety of recent developments in medical technology enable physicians to prolong life, a goal long sought by the medical profession. Artificial life support, in particular, has changed the medical environment, and physicians now seem to pay more attention to prolonging life than to pain relief and other important aspects of quality of life as it relates to medical care. The perception of qua...

The Spanish government recently passed legislation that legalized euthanasia. This article analyzes the Organic Law on Regulation of Voluntary Euthanasia by exploring its procedural aspects, various methods providing assistance to die and medical role under law. After this examination, points out three potential problems with respect law’s practical implementation. first problem is lack explici...

Opinions of university students about euthanasia were studied in 4 cities in Pakistan using convenience sampling. A total of 836 students (316 males and 520 females) completed a questionnaire in which euthanasia was defined as deliberate administration of an overdose of a drug by a doctor to relieve pain and suffering of a dying patient at his/her explicit request to end his/her life. Only 25.6...

German psychiatrists proposed the extermination of mental patients before Hitler came to power. Then in Nazi Germany, organized psychiatry implemented involuntary eugenical sterilization and euthanasia, ultimately killing up to 100000 German mental patients. The six psychiatric euthanasia centers utilized medical professionals, fake death certificates, gas chambers disguised as showers, and the...

During the past decade, the debate about legalising euthanasia has grown in many developed countries, including France. Medical journals have reflected this: surveys have assessed doctors’ attitudes toward euthanasia and bioethics articles have discussed the pros and cons. Supporters of legalisation argue that euthanasia is a continuation of palliative care and that doctors must respect patient...

Belgium has recently extended its euthanasia legislation to minors, making it the first legislation in the world that does not specify any age limit. I consider two strands in the opposition to this legislation. First, I identify five arguments in the public debate to the effect that euthanasia for minors is somehow worse than euthanasia for adults--viz, arguments from weightiness, capability o...

In response to the paper by Keown and Jochemsen in which the latest empirical data concerning euthanasia and other end-of-life decisions in the Netherlands is discussed, this paper discusses three points. The use of euthanasia in cases in which palliative care was a viable alternative may be taken as proof of a slippery slope. However, it could also be interpreted as an indication of a shift to...

In the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak in the United States, a rapid and humane method of on-farm swine euthanasia will be required. Given the extraordinary number of animals involved and the design of currently used swine confinement buildings, methods relying on the handling and restraint of individual animals will likely prove much too slow to stem the spread of disease. Humanely ...

Euthanasia – characteristics of legal aspects in Poland and selected European countries This article presents the euthanasia countries. The key element considerations is presentation regulation against background often detailed precise solutions adopted (specially EU), which define conditions for carrying out this type “medical services”. These are presented from point view ensuring legality tr...

BACKGROUND In 2002, the Belgian Act on Euthanasia came into effect, regulating the intentional ending of life by a physician at the patient's explicit request. We undertook this study to describe trends in officially reported euthanasia cases in Belgium with regard to patients' sociodemographic and clinical profiles, as well as decision-making and performance characteristics. METHODS We used ...