background: in the majority of countries, active direct euthanasia is a forbidden way of the deprivation of the patients’ life, while its passive form is commonly accepted. this distinction between active and passive euthanasia has no justification, viewed through the prism of morality and ethics. therefore, we focused on attention on the moral and ethical implications of the aforementioned med...

The idea of passive euthanasia has recently been attacked in a particularly clear and explicit way by an ‘‘Ethics Task Force’’ established by the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) in February 2001. It claims that the expression ‘‘passive euthanasia’’ is a contradiction in terms and hence that there can be no such thing. This paper critically assesses the main arguments for the Task...

Euthanasia is one of the controversial topics in current medical ethics. Among the six well-known types of euthanasia, passive voluntary euthanasia (PVE) seems to be more plausible in comparison with other types, from the moral point of view. According to the Kantian framework, ethical features come from 'reason'. Maxims are formulated as categorical imperative which has three different version...

The idea of passive euthanasia has recently been attacked in a particularly clear and explicit way by an "Ethics Task Force" established by the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) in February 2001. It claims that the expression "passive euthanasia" is a contradiction in terms and hence that there can be no such thing. This paper critically assesses the main arguments for the Task For...

OBJECTIVES The recently enacted Israeli Dying Patient Act was designed to strike balance between enhancing patient autonomy in end-of-life decision making and cultural/religious norms that are in opposition to active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). The current study evaluated physician attitudes regarding active and passive euthanasia, and their knowledge of specific aspects of...

BACKGROUND The Dutch law states that a physician may perform euthanasia according to a written advance euthanasia directive (AED) when a patient is incompetent as long as all legal criteria of due care are met. This may also hold for patients with advanced dementia. We investigated the differing opinions of physicians and members of the general public on the acceptability of euthanasia in patie...