Sedation, Suicide, and the Limits of Ethics

Download or read book Sedation, Suicide, and the Limits of Ethics written by James A. Dunson and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, James Dunson explores end-of-life ethics including physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and continuous sedation until death. He argues that ethical debates currently ignore the experience of the dying patient in an effort to focus on policy creation, and proposes that the dying experience should instead be prioritized and used to inform policy development. The author makes the case that PAS should be recognized as a legally and morally permissible option for a very particular kind of patient: terminally ill with fewer than six months to live and capable of conscious consent. Since focusing on the patient's experience of this end-of-life dilemma transforms some of the basic concepts we use to engage in the PAS debate, the argument has implications for patient care and the training of medical professionals.