Rationality and the refusal of medical treatment: a critique of the recent approach of the English courts

Article Abstract:

The recent attitude of the English courts in matters related to the patient's right to refuse life-saving medicines has been criticised. Recent decisions suggest that patients are only held to a basic competence standard with no thought to irrationality before the courts accept the refusal.Though this attitude upholds the patient's autonomy, it overlooks the problems of a deceived mind making wrong decisions since refusals by irrational patients should be negated rather than supported.

Cases, Insanity, Right to refuse treatment, Capacity and disability, Treatment refusal

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An 'ethics-gap' in writing about bioethics: a quantitative comparison of the medical and the surgical literature

Article Abstract:

A search on a CD ROM version of the MEDLINE database of 15 medical and 12 surgical journals from 1992 dealing with bioethics shows a significant difference between the number of medical (307 out of 11,239) and surgical (17 out of 2,645) bioethics articles. This discrepancy may be due to the paternalistic nature of surgeons who prefer beneficence to autonomy which is against the prevalent bioethics debate and hence they hesitate to write about bioethics.

Research, Literature, Medical literature

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Are attitudes towards bioethics entering a new era?

Article Abstract:

UNESCO's International Bioethics Committee (IBC) is preparing a preliminary draft of a declaration on the human genome and human rights. The declaration aims to reaffirm and update the basic principles of human dignity and scientific freedom and to apply these principles in modern biomedical sciences. IBC holds annual sessions devoted to evaluating the difficulties in interpreting and implementing these principles.

Analysis, Ethical aspects, Genetics

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