Author/Editor     Bobnar, Albina
Title     Evtanazija
Translated title     Euthanasia
Type     članek
Source     In: Klemenc D, Kvas A, Pahor M, et al, editors. Zdravstvena nega v luči etike. Ljubljana: Društvo medicinskih sester in zdravstvenih tehnikov,
Publication year     2003
Volume     str. 163-74
Language     slo
Abstract     In medical care, palliative care has lately gained wider appreciation and proved to be indispensable in formal medical system, viz. in terms of its professionalism as well as irs specialty. Despite these advances, requests for voluntary active euthanasia continue to increase. In the materialistic society of today, the greatest values is health; therefore, emergency medicine and the patients thereof, mainly affected by curable diseases, are privileged from the patients with chronic diseases. The competence to terminate the life of another human being is a challenge that is going to change the fundamental value of human ethics. The limirs of onesided thinking are being broken, its boundaries are being shifted, no one, having been affected by a fatal disease, is the same person as before. Dying is now regarded as a disease that can be treated. Moreover, the treatment of this disease has become one of health services provided by general health system. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are concepts that we shall have to adopt and accept in every day communication, in particularly with regard to two European countries, viz. the Netherlands and Belgium, that have already legalized assisted suicide (Ten Have 2003). This paper contains accumulated knowledge and experiences in palliarive care that serve as a basis to form some views on euthanasia, including the concept and interpretation of its well-intentioned and innocuous strivings, dubious moral status of patinet's autonomy, and encouragement for health professionals to start thinking about the issues of quality of life related to palliative care. (Abstract truncated at 2000 characters).
Descriptors     EUTHANASIA
PALLIATIVE CARE
PATIENT ADVOCACY
EMPATHY