The story of Terri Schiavo should be disturbing to all of us. How can it be that medicine,
ethics, law, and family can work so poorly together in meeting the needs of this woman who …

Advance directives—such as living wills and health care proxies—are documents intended
to declare and preserve the health care choices of patients if they become unable to make …

Esta publicación está dividida en tres partes, la primera se dedica a profundizar desde un
plano filosófico-moral y político-criminal general, en el ratio y legitimidad estatal del empleo …

In Caring for Patients at the End of Life: Facing an Uncertain Future Together, Dr. Quill uses
his wide range of clinical experience caring for severely ill patients and their families to …

For years the spectre of Claire Conroy has haunted me. At the time of her death in 1985, Ms.
Conroy was an eighty-four year-old nursing home resident whose condition had …

Different substantive and procedural issues have been raised in these cases, and society's
thinking has changed as a result of the far more complex legal issues that appear today as …

Loss of a loved one, though a universal experience, is never easy. The loss is particularly
poignant and difficult to bear when it is one's own child who has died. Yet even more …

1. For a general discussion of the principles of self-determination and autonomy, see H.
Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., The Foundations of Bioethics 264 (1986), which states that"[o] ne of …

Voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) remain technically
illegal in the Netherlands, but the practices are openly tolerated provided that physicians …

During the last twenty years, courts and legislatures have developed principles that allow
individuals and their surrogates to refuse medical care, even when refusal will lead to death …