Jaargang 4 nr. 2, mei 2001,

Mylène BAUM en Jean-Philippe COBBAUT: Feiten en cijfers rond medische besluitvorming over stille patiënten.

Summary: Facts and numbers on medical decisions for silent patients, and beyond - Helga Kuhse as well as the Flemish end-of-life researchers have claimed that the high incidence of non-voluntary life-termination by the use of lethal drugs may be explained by prohibitive legal policies and that the legalization of euthanasia might actually prevent non-requested life termination. In this paper it is argued that this conclusion is unwarranted. The retrospective nature of the incidence studies methodology, as well as the epidemiological approach itself are insufficient to allow the deduction of legal arrangements, mainly because they eliminate the patients' viewpoint and suggest some unidirectional end-of-life decision making process. Instead of unidirectional laws deduced from unidirectional methodologies, broad and pluralistic legal frames, reflecting dialogical ethical approaches, are needed. These are needed to limit the decisional powers of medicine.

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Professor Mylène Baum doceert ethiek aan de Unité de Bioéthique Médicale van de Université Catholique de Louvain (faculteit Geneeskunde) en is lid van het Raadgevend Comité voor Bio-ethiek.
Jean-Philippe Cobbaut is gastdocent rechten aan dezelfde Unité de Bioéthique Médicale.
Beide auteurs zijn verbonden aan de faculteit Rechten van de Universiteit Antwerpen (Ufsia).