Report of the Northern California Conference for Guidelines on Aid-in- Dying: Definitions, differences, convergences, conclusions

Western Journal of Medicine

Volumn 166, Issue 6, 1997, Pages 381-388

  Young, Ernlé W D ^a   Marcus, Fred S ^a   Drought, Theresa ^a   Mendiola, Michael ^a   Ciesielski Carlucci, Chris ^a   Alpers, Ann ^a   Eaton, Margaret ^a   Koenig, Barbara A ^a   Loewy, Erich ^a   Raffin, Thomas A ^a   Ross, Charlotte ^a  

^a STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; COPING BEHAVIOR; DOCTOR PATIENT RELATION; DYING; EUTHANASIA; HUMAN; HUMAN CELL; MEDICAL ETHICS; MEDICAL SOCIETY; NOMENCLATURE; ORGANIZATION; POLICY; PRACTICE GUIDELINE; TERMINAL DISEASE;

DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CONSENSUS DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE FOR GUIDELINES ON AID-IN-DYING; STANFORD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR BIOMEDICAL ETHICS;

CALIFORNIA; CONSENSUS; CONSENSUS DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCES; CULTURAL DIVERSITY; DISSENT AND DISPUTES; ETHICS COMMITTEES, CLINICAL; ETHICS CONSULTATION; ETHICS, MEDICAL; EUTHANASIA; GROUP PROCESSES; INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNICATION; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; PRACTICE GUIDELINES; STRESS, PSYCHOLOGICAL; SUICIDE, ASSISTED; TERMINAL CARE; TRUST;

EID: 0030907061     PISSN: 00930415     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (7)

1. Weir RF: Abating Treatment with Critically Ill Patients: Ethical and Legal Limits to the Medical Prolongation of Life. New York, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp 214-289
2. Funded by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation.
3. These lectures appear throughout this issue of THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE.
4. Bay Area Network of Ethics Committees Guidelines for Comprehensive Care of the Terminally Ill on pages 372-378 in this issue of THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE require that the primary care physician ascertain a terminal diagnosis, defined as "a reasonable certainty of death within six months provided the disease runs its expected course, by a review of the medical records and pertinent history and physical examination."
5. Ronald Cranford, MD, although directing his comments to the matter of voluntary active euthanasia, offers a concurring argument that has equal relevance to PAD generally. He suggests that it makes little sense to restrict active euthanasia to the terminally ill or imminently dying. Such an intervention, he argues, might be more appropriate for one who might live years or months with great suffering. See Cranford RE: Reflection. In Hamel R (Ed.): Choosing Death: Active Euthanasia, Religion, and the Public Debate. Philadelphia, Trinity Press International, 1991, pp 105-106.
6. 'The issue of voluntariness has been discussed extensively in ethical and legal literature on informed consent. For a thorough discussion, see Faden RR, Beauchamp TL: A History and Theory of Informed Consent. New York, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp 337-381.
7. 'These criteria are similar to the "clinical criteria for physician-assisted suicide"; see Quill T, Cassell C, Meier D: Care of the hopelessly ill: proposed clinical criteria for physician-assisted suicide. N Engl J Med 1992; 327:1380-1384.