Topic
End-of-life ethics research, explained
9 open-access end-of-life ethics studies, each with a flashcard deck and a quiz.
- What ethics does a permanent heart pump raise?
LVAD as destination therapy prolongs life in transplant-ineligible heart failure, but it also reshapes dying, consent, and caregiver burden.
- Is end-of-life autonomy only an isolated choice?
The authors treat respect for autonomy as central at the end of life but argue decisions are better understood relationally, in clinical context, not as isolated characteristics of a choice.
- Are organ donors after cardiac death actually dead yet?
The authors argue that a heart that has stopped for a few minutes and will not be restarted is permanently stopped but not irreversibly so, so these donors are dying rather than dead.
- Who may forgo life-sustaining treatment?
East Asian statutes on withdrawing LST differ sharply from England: Japan still lacked a forgoing-LST law after a decade of debate; Korea and Taiwan legislated withdrawal; England treats family differently in the comparative analysis.
- Should palliative care erase all suffering?
Den Hartogh says end-of-life studies cite Cassell but then measure suffering like a symptom list; dying well can require respecting some suffering, not only removing it.
- How do carers reason morally about sedation until death?
Doctors, nurses and families cope with sedating dying patients by talking in ways that reduce how close they feel to the decision and the death.
- Does the double-effect rule really justify palliative sedation?
The authors argue that the classic double-effect justification does not fit palliative sedation, and that doctors invoke it mainly to manage their own moral discomfort about death.
- Is sedating dying brain-injured patients different from euthanasia?
Sedating non-communicating brain-injured patients when life support is withdrawn can be justified as pain relief rather than killing, but only if the dose is proportionate to possible suffering and the decision is transparent.
- What must Japan fix before offering permanent heart pumps?
The authors argue that a permanent heart pump should not be rolled out in Japan until doctors can legally switch it off at a patient's request and patients are helped, not forced, to plan for the end of life.