Most physicians believe they do more good than harm, and these duties of helping and not
harming the patient are rooted in the Hippocratic oath, the good Samaritan tradition, and the …

A critical controversy surrounds the type of allowable interventions to be carried out in
patients who are potential organ donors, in an attempt to improve organ perfusion and …

Withholding or withdrawing a life-sustaining treatment tends to be very challenging for
health care providers, patients, and their family members alike. When a patient's life seems …

This article addresses two basic questions about ethics committees: why we have them, and
how they might be helpful to clinicians. Our answer to the first question is twofold. First, we …

In this paper we defend that elective ventilation (EV), even if conceived as the instrument to
maximise the chances of organ recovery, is mainly the means to provide the patient who is …

Elective ventilation (EV) is ventilation applied, not in the interest of patients, but in order to
secure transplantable organs. It carries with it a small risk that patients who would otherwise …

Respect for patient autonomy has become the preeminent principle of medical ethics, to the
point that tools have been developed, such as instructive directives, in an attempt to …

Elective ventilation (EV) is ventilation—not to save a patient's life, but with the expectation
that s/he will die—in the hope that organs can be retrieved in the best possible state. The …

As part of a larger series addressing the intersection of law and medicine, this essay is the
second of two introductory pieces. Beginning with the Hippocratic tradition and lasting for the …

Patients with chronic lung diseases suffer higher symptom burden, lower quality of life, and
greater social isolation compared with patients with other diagnoses, such as cancer. These …