Not just euthanasia: recognizing a legal positive right to palliative care

2005 Jan 3

01/03/2005

PubMed:

Med Law . 2005 Mar;24(1):203-10.

By Sylviane Colombo

Abstract

As jurists, doctors, and ethicists are increasingly engaged in the debate as to whether and how to legalize euthanasia as a matter of public policy, less debate takes place on what it is submitted ought naturally to come before, i.e. the affirmation of a legal right to palliative care. In Israel, the draft law The Terminally Ill Patient (2001) includes a palliative care provision. It is submitted that such provision, laudable as it is, appears within a euthanasia-oriented framework and is given too limited a scope. Hence the suggestion that palliative care be given an autonomous role, and be recognized as a positive legal right.

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