Próba oceny sytuacji granicznych związanych z chorobą i umieraniem [DEATH AND DYING – BO RDERLINE CASES]

Abstract

The aim of this article is an attempt to evaluate the following issues related to thelast stage of illness and death: discontinue of artificial nutrition and hydration, discontinueor refrain from life-saving therapy or palliative sedation.Mentioned cases are borderline situations. Medical consultants, taking thedecisions of removing the tube feeding, discontinuing or not taking up the procedurewhich causes maintain the patient’s life or applying terminal sedation, are aware, thatabove will lead to patient’s death. This is the reason why above situations cause lotsof doubts, the most important of which is a question, whether we are dealing withpassive euthanasia. Is it possible to carry out the border between forbidden “kill” andpermitted “let die”. Any attempt to answer this question is a kind of consensus.

Keywords

• passive and active euthanasia
• physician assisted suicide
• killing
• letting die
• terminal sedation
• life sustaining treatment