Citation

Druml W. Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin 2010; 47(1): 25-28.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010)

DOI

10.1007/s00390-009-0134-0

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

End-of-life decisions are traditionally described within the terminological concept of euthanasia (active/passive - direct/indirect). The thesis of this contribution is that this terminology is inadequate and inappropriate not only because of its historical connotations, but because it does not conform with or reflect the position of modern intensive care medicine on the dying/death of a patient. Nowadays, it is viewed as an essential task and aim of intensive care medicine to enable the comforted, gentle, and peaceful death of a patient when therapeutic interventions are no longer effective or justified. This constitutive task of modern intensive care medicine has absolutely nothing to do with any type of euthanasia, a term which should be exclusively restricted to a death at the patient's request or assisted suicide. Moreover, ethical considerations at the end of life should not be dependent on the institutional context in which a patient is dying. It is unacceptable that any death in an intensive care unit be automatically viewed within the terminological framework of euthanasia. These are not only "wrong words," but also reflect an outdated concept which has been brought into medicine from areas outside medicine and hinders the further evolution of patient-oriented, empathic intensive care medicine. © Springer-Verlag 2010.

Language: de

Keywords

Ethics; Euthanasia; End-of-life decisions; Intensive care medicine