Journal of medical ethics
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Journal of medical ethics · Dec 1991
Case ReportsProlonging dying is the same as prolonging living--one more response to Long.
In earlier publications, we had argued that Paul Ramsey is inconsistent because he simultaneously asserts that (i) 'all our days and years are of equal worth' and (ii) 'that it is permissible to refrain from prolonging the lives of some dying patients'. Thomas Long has suggested that we have not shown that Paul Ramsey is inconsistent. Ramsey and we, he holds, start from incommensurable metaphysical views: for Ramsey, the dying process has religious significance--God is calling his servant home. ⋯ For Ramsey's view to be internally consistent, Ramsey would have to be able to distinguish between dying and non-dying patients. We examine some of Ramsey's examples and show that his practical judgements do not allow us to draw this distinction. This means that, contra Long, we hold fast to our charge that Ramsey's view is inconsistent.
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Journal of medical ethics · Dec 1991
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Torture and the Medical Profession.
... The main topic of this publication is the involvement of professional medical doctors in the course of torture in, generally speaking, the following ways: 1. Medical scientific knowledge and experience is used in the design of the methods and techniques of torture, for example pharmacological torture; 2. ⋯ Doctors are present -- "passive" -- during the implementation of torture (in more than sixty per cent of cases) for example monitoring the clinical condition of the victim in order to prevent death; are present when the death sentence is carried out, and then write out death certificates. Many of these are later shown by forensic documentation to be false.... This supplement is based on an international symposium, Torture and the Medical Profession, which was held at the University of Tromsø in June 1990....