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End of life
Published in Gary Chan Kok Yew, Health Law and Medical Ethics in Singapore, 2020
It is useful from the outset to differentiate the forms of euthanasia. The most controversial is voluntary euthanasia which takes place upon the patient’s request and the physician executes the final act. Where the final act is executed by the patient with the assistance of a physician, it is known as physician-assisted suicide. In some cases, the patient may not be physically capable of executing the final act due to disability. Non-voluntary euthanasia occurs when the patient does not have the capacity to request or consent to euthanasia or did not express his wish when he had capacity. Involuntary euthanasia is performed on a person who has expressed that he does not want to die or he is not asked for his decision. Most people would frown on involuntary euthanasia. There is also a distinction between euthanasia that is described as active (based on a positive act) or passive (an omission such as withdrawing life support).
Medico-legal issues at the end of life
Published in Peter Hutton, Ravi Mahajan, Allan Kellehear, Death, Religion and Law, 2019
Peter Hutton, Ravi Mahajan, Allan Kellehear
Euthanasia is the term given to a situation in which another person, e.g., a doctor, nurse or relative, intentionally ends a patient’s life. It should be emphasized that this is a deliberate act by a different individual from the patient, and so is distinct from the assisted dying and assisted suicide that are described below. There are two broad categories. Voluntary euthanasia is usually defined as terminal illness, intolerable suffering or an incurable condition affecting a patient whose life is ended on their request by a clinician administering lethal drugs. This is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.Involuntary euthanasia is when the clinician takes the decision to end their life without the permission of the patient. This is illegal everywhere, but there is evidence from anonymous surveys that it happens on occasions.3
Will Assisted Suicide Kill Hospice?
Published in Bruce Jennings, Ethics in Hospice Care: Challenges to Hospice Values in a Changing Health Care Environment, 2018
Limiting the right to assistance in dying to those who request it makes sense. After all, no one should be helped to die against his or her will. To kill without a request is murder, not suicide. Involuntary euthanasia, at the direction of family, doctors or the state, is an especially morally suspect activity. The worst genocide in this century took place with the moral rationale that involuntary euthanasia of Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists, Slavs, persons with handicaps and homosexuals was ethically justified.
Bilateral occipital lobe infarct neglect deficit (BLIND) syndrome
Published in Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives, 2021
S Shanmugam, HL Haver, SM Knecht, R Rajjoub, O Ali, R Chow
Fortunately, our history has drastically transformed, where involuntary euthanasia is no longer practiced. However, physicians who advocated for racial hygiene, like Gabriel Anton, are still recognized in our literature. Jeannette et al. discourages use of eponyms as diagnostic terms in favor of terms that describe distinct features of the particular disease. She highlights the specific instance of renaming Wegener’s granulomatosis to granulomatosis with polyangiitis’, on the evidence that Dr. Friedrich Wegener was a member of the Nazi party [16,17]. We therefore propose using the term, Bilateral occipital Lobe Infarct Neglect Deficit (BLIND) Syndrome, to replace the eponym, Anton syndrome, for individuals who develop cortical blindness with visual anosognosia after experiencing bilateral occipital lobe ischemic infarcts. While still respecting Anton’s contributions to neuropsychiatry, we believe BLIND Syndrome will encompass the phenomenon of visual anosognosia in cortical blindness, as well as pay homage to the thousands who lost their lives in the 1900s’ euthanasia programs.