Over the past two decades a societal consensus has developed around the principle that decisions about life-sustaining treatment should be guided by patient self-determination. According to the President's Commission, ...

Since its inception contemporary medical ethics has been regarded by many of its practitioners as 'applied ethics', that is, the application of philosophical theories to the moral problems that arise in health care. ...

In the 1970s the "euthanasia movement" in the Netherlands began as a protest against the power of contemporary medicine to alienate individuals from their own dying. Instead of counterbalancing that power and enhancing the ...

What practical lessons, then, does this closer examination of assisted-suicide practices in contemporary Germany teach us about the United States, and particularly about the kinds of practices the U.S. should or should not ...

Conclusion: At a time when hospitals are having predictable difficulty accommodating infinite expectations with finite resources, there are still some observers who abhor even the possibility that the cost and volume of ...

Conclusion: Ethics committees are crucial at this point in the history of medicine. They serve as a forum where various ethical issues can be raised, discussed, critically examined, and "where a number of disciplines come ...