There is evidence from outside the UK to show that physicians’ religious beliefs influence their decision making at the end of life. This UK study explores the belief system of consultants, nurse key workers & specialist registrars & their attitudes to decisions which commonly must be taken when caring for individuals who are dying. Results showed that consultants’ religion & belief systems differed from those of nurses & the population they served. Consultants & nurses had statistically significant differences in their attitudes to common end of life decisions with consultants more likely to continue hydration & not withdraw treatment. Nurses were more sympathetic to the idea of PAS for unbearable suffering. This study shows the variability in belief system and attitudes to end of life decision making both within and between clinical groups. The personal belief system of consultants was not shown to affect their overall attitudes to withdrawing life-sustaining treatment or PAS.
There is no justification for a claim that Christianity must oppose the assisted death of a person who has made their own decision to die, provided that such a person can convince others that their desire to die is fully considered. I will make this argument given two conditions: first that the person is capable of making an educated decision, and second that their end-of-life experience includes full access to both pastoral and medical care.
Plans to relax the laws on assisted suicide have been thrown into doubt after a group of lawyers questioned the role of Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Britain’s most senior judge. Lawyers from campaign group the Christian Legal Centre want the advice to be put on hold because of Lord Phillips’ personal sympathy those calling for the rules on assisted suicide to be realxed, which emerged weeks after the judgement was handed down.
SAN JOSE — Costa Rica, a nation that takes pride in its respect for civil liberties, is being sued for failing to lift a ban on in-vitro fertilization (IVF), as it remains the only country in the Americas that prohibits the procedure. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said on Monday it will take Costa Rica to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for not legalizing IVF after the commission twice extended its previous deadline for the country to do so. In-vitro fertilization was banned in Costa Rica in 2000 under pressure from the Catholic Church. Some couples have taken their cases to the Inter-American Court, which is based in Washington, and 50 couples have joined to file the petition. President Laura Chinchilla has made efforts to prevent the case from reaching the court, but she was met with sluggish action on the part of Costa Rican lawmakers.
The extent to which people should be able to have some control over how and when they die is a hugely contentious issue. In 2006, the House of Lords blocked Lord Joffe’s bill that would have allowed terminally ill people in certain circumstance to be helped to die. Yet there is little robust and impartial evidence about the attitudes of people in Britain towards these issues. To find out more about what people think, the 2005 British Social Attitudes survey included a set of questions about attitudes to assisted dying and end of life care.
In de liturgisch-pastorale praktijk wordt men geconfronteerd met de vraag in hoeverre sacramentenbediening en kerkelijke uitvaartplechtigheden mogelijk zijn in geval van euthanasie en suïcide. Deze vragen hebben niet alleen betrekking op degene die zelf om euthanasie vraagt of op wie suïcide pleegt, maar ook op omstaanders die hebben ingestemd, resp. medewerking verleend. De Nederlandse bisschoppen hebben in oktober 2005 de brochure "Pastoraat rond het verzoek om euthanasie of hulp bij suïcide. Een handreiking voor studie en bezinning" uitgegeven. Daarin geven zij naast een aantal overwegingen bijgaande liturgisch-pastorale richtlijnen.
A judge has ordered that doctors can switch off a young boy's life-support system even though his devout Christian parents pleaded for him to be kept alive in case of a miracle.
Terminally ill children are subjected to needless suffering amounting to 'torture' by parents who refuse to allow the withdrawal of treatment because of their religious beliefs, leading doctors have claimed.
A cancer-stricken woman fighting a right-to-die battle against her parents won the backing of an appellate court Friday, which ruled that the 28-year-old bank manager from New York City who is paralyzed as a result of a brain tumor may decide her own fate. The emotional case has been playing out in Grace SungEun Lee’s room at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island, and on a Facebook page, Save Grace SungEun Lee, created by those who sided with family members desperate to keep Lee on life support. As word of the appellate court’s decision spread Friday, the page was swarmed with comments from people arguing for and against it, underscoring the passionate debate that surrounds the issue of individuals’ rights to choose death over terminal illness.
“A physician makes an effective referral when he or she takes positive action to ensure the patient is connected in a timely manner to another physician, health-care provider, or agency who is non-objecting, accessible and available to the patient,”