On the ethics of withholding and withdrawing medical treatment
Keywords:
Slippery slope, Withdrawing, Withholding, Voluntary active euthanasiaAbstract
A general rationale is presented for withholding and withdrawing medical treatment in end-of-life situations, and an argument is offered for the moral irrelevance of the distinction, both in the context of pharmaceutical treatments, such as chemotherapy in cancer, and in the context of life-sustaining treatments, such as the artificial ventilator in lateral amyotrophic sclerosis. It is argued that this practice is not equivalent to sanctioning voluntary active euthanasia and that it is not likely to favour it.
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Mattioli 1885 has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.