The purpose of the study was to identify professional nurses attitudes towards euthanasia. A descriptive study of the attitudes of professional nurses towards euthanasia was undertaken. The data collecting instrument was a questionnaire, which was self-administered to 26 professional nurses working in different wards. The majority of professional nurses were against euthanasia in hospitals. It ...

In considering the patient's right to a certain quality of dying, this essay outlines how the legal and ethical justifications for passive euthanasia depend on the doctrine of acts and omissions. It is suggested that this doctrine is untenable and that alternative justifications are needed. The development of the modern mechanistic approach to death is traced, showing that a possible basis for ...

In his "Notes on Moral Theology: April-September 1975," Richard A. McCormick, S.J., takes up some recent treatments of the distinction between killing and allowing to die. I want to comment on one part of that discussion—his treatment of an article by Gerald J. Hughes, S.J.1 will suggest that neither Hughes's argument nor McCormick's discussion takes us much beyond where Paul Ramsey had already...

Issues regarding death are incredibly complicated and involve topics that are often difficult to discuss. In this essay, I will argue that active euthanasia is morally and ethically permissible in instances involving consenting terminally ill patients. Using an act-utilitarian approach, I contend that voluntary active euthanasia should be seen as a viable option due to its potential to reduce t...

388 Japanese religious groups 143 Shinto, 157 Buddhist, 58 Christian and 30 others were asked to answer questions regarding several forms of euthanasia in hypothetical situations and what they considered to be extraordinary treatment during the dying process. Passive euthanasia and indirect euthanasia were accepted by around 70% of the respondents. Active euthanasia was favored by less than 20%...

When is it lawful and ethical to withhold or withdraw treatment and tube feeding? In recent years, the courts have handed down important decisions and medical bodies have issued professional guidelines on withholding and withdrawing treatment and tube feeding. A major criticism of these decisions and guidelines has been that while they prohibit the intentional hastening of a patient's life by a...

There has been renewed interest in the moral arguments surrounding euthanasia. Some patients are now apprehensive of advanced medical technology which they fear may result in a prolonged and undignified death. In the current situation of scarce resources for health care, both patients and doctors could be coerced into considering active euthanasia if it was legally available. In this paper it i...

The November 8, 1994 passage of Oregon's Measure 16, which permits physicians to comply with the request of a competent adult patient with less than six months to live for a prescription for lethal drugs, has intensified the debate over the legalization of physicianassisted suicide following the defeats of similar initiatives in Washington' and California.2 Subsequent legal challenge to Measure...