By Michael Cook “The strongest arguments in favour of physician-assisted suicide [PAS] are respect for autonomy, justice, compassion, honesty, individual liberty and transparency.” This is a sentence drawn from a press release issued by the European Society of Anaesthesiology, which debated PAS at a conference in Geneva earlier this month. But it could have come …
Continue reading "Autonomy: a short history of a big idea"By Michael Cook Editor’s note. The following is excerpted from a post that appeared on Mercatornet. If I ask why abortion is legal, I will be told that women have a right to autonomy over their bodies. … And if I ask why patients should be free to request euthanasia and why doctors should be …
Continue reading "Autonomy: what a useless idea!"Should patients who want to self-harm be assisted, so as not to offend their personal autonomy? By Michael Cook If I could send a tweet summing up in 140 characters what is wrong with bioethics today, it would be: “Bioethics is broken. Doctors respecting patients who make really BAD decisions. All because of AUTONOMY. DUMB!!! …
Continue reading "Give them sterile razors?"Despite their terrible disability, they are satisfied with life By Michael Cook The craze for Marvel superheroes encourages us to think that just being human is too easy. We need to exceed the limitations of our frail bodies by adding superpowers – breathing underwater, eternal youth, colossal strength, regeneration, flying, spinning spider webs, and so …
Continue reading "The astonishing witness of totally “locked-in” patients"