| Moral fictions and medical ethics. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 19594726 Owner: NLM Status: In-Process |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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Conventional medical ethics and the law draw a bright line distinguishing the permitted practice of withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from the forbidden practice of active euthanasia by means of a lethal injection. When clinicians justifiably withdraw life-sustaining treatment, they allow patients to die but do not cause, intend, or have moral responsibility for, the patient's death. In contrast, physicians unjustifiably kill patients whenever they intentionally administer a lethal dose of medication. We argue that the differential moral assessment of these two practices is based on a series of moral fictions - motivated false beliefs that erroneously characterize withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in order to bring accepted end-of-life practices in line with the prevailing moral norm that doctors must never kill patients. When these moral fictions are exposed, it becomes apparent that conventional medical ethics relating to end-of-life decisions is radically mistaken. |
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Authors:
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Franklin G Miller; Robert D Truog; Dan W Brock |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Bioethics Volume: 24 ISSN: 1467-8519 ISO Abbreviation: Bioethics Publication Date: 2010 Nov |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2010-10-29 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 8704792 Medline TA: Bioethics Country: England |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 453-60 Citation Subset: E; IM |
Copyright Information:
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© 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. |
Affiliation:
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Department of Bioethics, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1156, USA. fmiller@nih.gov |
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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