Switch to: Citations

Add references

You must login to add references.
  1. Vulnerability in research and health care; describing the elephant in the room?Samia A. Hurst - 2008 - Bioethics 22 (4):191–202.
    Despite broad agreement that the vulnerable have a claim to special protection, defining vulnerable persons or populations has proved more difficult than we would like. This is a theoretical as well as a practical problem, as it hinders both convincing justifications for this claim and the practical application of required protections. In this paper, I review consent-based, harm-based, and comprehensive definitions of vulnerability in healthcare and research with human subjects. Although current definitions are subject to critique, their underlying assumptions may (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   100 citations  
  • Moral values of Dutch physicians in relation to requests for euthanasia: a qualitative study.Guy Widdershoven, Natalie Evans, Fijgje de Boer & Marjanne van Zwol - 2022 - BMC Medical Ethics 23 (1):1-7.
    BackgroundIn the Netherlands, patients have the legal right to make a request for euthanasia to their physician. However, it is not clear what it means in a moral sense for a physician to receive a request for euthanasia. The aim of this study is to explore the moral values of physicians regarding requests for euthanasia. MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with nine primary healthcare physicians involved in decision-making about euthanasia. The data were inductively analyzed which lead to the emergence of themes, (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  • Acknowledging vulnerability in ethics of palliative care – A feminist ethics approach.Sofia Morberg Jämterud - 2022 - Nursing Ethics 29 (4):952-961.
    Patients in need of palliative care are often described as vulnerable. Being vulnerable can sometimes be interpreted as the opposite of being autonomous, if an autonomous person is seen as an independent, self-sufficient person who forms decisions independently of others. Such a dichotomous view can create a situation where one has experiences of vulnerability that cannot be reconciled with the central ethical principle of autonomy. The article presents a feminist ethical perspective on the conceptualisation of vulnerability in the context of (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • Relational autonomy: what does it mean and how is it used in end-of-life care? A systematic review of argument-based ethics literature.Carlos Gómez-Vírseda, Yves de Maeseneer & Chris Gastmans - 2019 - BMC Medical Ethics 20 (1):1-15.
    BackgroundRespect for autonomy is a key concept in contemporary bioethics and end-of-life ethics in particular. Despite this status, an individualistic interpretation of autonomy is being challenged from the perspective of different theoretical traditions. Many authors claim that the principle of respect for autonomy needs to be reconceptualised starting from a relational viewpoint. Along these lines, the notion of relational autonomy is attracting increasing attention in medical ethics. Yet, others argue that relational autonomy needs further clarification in order to be adequately (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   38 citations  
  • Principles of Biomedical Ethics: Marking Its Fortieth Anniversary.James Childress & Tom Beauchamp - 2019 - American Journal of Bioethics 19 (11):9-12.
    Volume 19, Issue 11, November 2019, Page 9-12.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   297 citations  
  • Beyond cultural stereotyping: views on end-of-life decision making among religious and secular persons in the USA, Germany, and Israel.Mark Schweda, Silke Schicktanz, Aviad Raz & Anita Silvers - 2017 - BMC Medical Ethics 18 (1):13.
    End-of-life decision making constitutes a major challenge for bioethical deliberation and political governance in modern democracies: On the one hand, it touches upon fundamental convictions about life, death, and the human condition. On the other, it is deeply rooted in religious traditions and historical experiences and thus shows great socio-cultural diversity. The bioethical discussion of such cultural issues oscillates between liberal individualism and cultural stereotyping. Our paper confronts the bioethical expert discourse with public moral attitudes. The paper is based on (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   6 citations  
  • Respect for Human Vulnerability: The Emergence of a New Principle in Bioethics.Henk ten Have - 2015 - Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 12 (3):395-408.
    Vulnerability has become a popular though controversial topic in bioethics, notably since 2000. As a result, a common body of knowledge has emerged distinguishing between different types of vulnerability, criticizing the categorization of populations as vulnerable, and questioning the practical implications. It is argued that two perspectives on vulnerability, i.e., the philosophical and political, pose challenges to contemporary bioethics discourse: they re-examine the significance of human agency, the primacy of the individual person, and the negativity of vulnerability. As a phenomenon (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   17 citations  
  • The theorisation of ‘best interests’ in bioethical accounts of decision-making.Giles Birchley - 2021 - BMC Medical Ethics 22 (1):1-18.
    Background Best interests is a ubiquitous principle in medical policy and practice, informing the treatment of both children and adults. Yet theory underlying the concept of best interests is unclear and rarely articulated. This paper examines bioethical literature for theoretical accounts of best interests to gain a better sense of the meanings and underlying philosophy that structure understandings. Methods A scoping review of was undertaken. Following a literature search, 57 sources were selected and analysed using the thematic method. Results Three (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  • Decisions that hasten death: double effect and the experiences of physicians in Australia.Steven A. Trankle - 2014 - BMC Medical Ethics 15 (1):26.
    In Australian end-of-life care, practicing euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is illegal. Despite this, death hastening practices are common across medical settings. Practices can be clandestine or overt but in many instances physicians are forced to seek protection behind ambiguous medico-legal imperatives such as the Principle of Double Effect. Moreover, the way they conceptualise and experience such practices is inconsistent. To complement the available statistical data, the purpose of this study was to understand the reasoning behind how and why physicians in (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • Communication of patients’ and family members’ ethical concerns to their healthcare providers.Mariam Noorulhuda, Christine Grady, Paul Wakim, Talia Bernhard, Hae Lin Cho & Marion Danis - 2023 - BMC Medical Ethics 24 (1):1-9.
    Background Little is known about communication between patients, families, and healthcare providers regarding ethical concerns that patients and families experience in the course of illness and medical care. To address this gap in the literature, we surveyed patients and family members to learn about their ethical concerns and the extent to which they discussed them with their healthcare providers. Methods We surveyed adult, English-speaking patients and family members receiving inpatient care in five hospitals in the Washington DC-Baltimore metropolitan area from (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  • Caring for older patients with reduced decision-making capacity: a deductive exploratory study of ambulance clinicians’ ethical competence.Bodil Holmberg, Anna Bennesved & Anders Bremer - 2023 - BMC Medical Ethics 24 (1):1-12.
    Background As more people are living longer, they become frail and are affected by multi-morbidity, resulting in increased demands from the ambulance service. Being vulnerable, older patients may have reduced decision-making capacity, despite still wanting to be involved in decision-making about their care. Their needs may be complex and difficult to assess, and do not always correspond with ambulance assessment protocols. When needing an ambulance, older patients encounter ambulance clinicians who are under high workloads and primarily consider themselves as emergency (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • Relational autonomy in end-of-life care ethics: a contextualized approach to real-life complexities.Carlos Gómez-Vírseda, Yves de Maeseneer & Chris Gastmans - 2020 - BMC Medical Ethics 21 (1):1-14.
    BackgroundRespect for autonomy is a paramount principle in end-of-life ethics. Nevertheless, empirical studies show that decision-making, exclusively focused on the individual exercise of autonomy fails to align well with patients’ preferences at the end of life. The need for a more contextualized approach that meets real-life complexities experienced in end-of-life practices has been repeatedly advocated. In this regard, the notion of ‘relational autonomy’ may be a suitable alternative approach. Relational autonomy has even been advanced as a foundational notion of palliative (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   17 citations  
  • A good death.Judith L. Hold - 2017 - Nursing Ethics 24 (1):9-19.
    Background: On a day to day basis, nurses are facing more ethical dilemmas during end-of-life care resulting in not being able to actualize a good death for patients. Research objective: The purpose of this study was to explore how experienced hospice nurses resolve day to day ethical dilemmas during end-of-life care. Research design: The study used a qualitative narrative approach. Participants: Through purposeful sampling, a total of six experienced hospice nurse participated. Ethical considerations: Approval from the researcher’s university Institutional Review (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • Vulnerability identified in clinical practice: a qualitative analysis.Laura Sossauer, Mélinée Schindler & Samia Hurst - 2019 - BMC Medical Ethics 20 (1):1-10.
    Background Although it is the moral duty of physicians to protect vulnerable patients, there are no data on how vulnerability is perceived in clinical practice. This study explores how physicians classify someone as “vulnerable”. Method Thirty-three physicians were initially questioned about resource allocation problems in their work. The results of these interviews were examined with qualitative study software to identify characteristics associated with vulnerability in patients. Data were conceptualized, classified and cross-linked to highlight the major determinants of vulnerability. The findings (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  • Justification for requiring disclosure of diagnoses and prognoses to dying patients in saudi medical settings: a Maqasid Al-Shariah-based Islamic bioethics approach.Manal Z. Alfahmi - 2022 - BMC Medical Ethics 23 (1):1-9.
    BackgroundIn Saudi clinical settings, benevolent family care that reflects strongly held sociocultural values is commonly used to justify overriding respect for patient autonomy. Because the welfare of individuals is commonly regarded as inseparable from the welfare of their family as a whole, these values are widely believed to obligate the family to protect the welfare of its members by, for example, giving the family authority over what healthcare practitioners disclose to patients about their diagnoses and prognoses and preventing them from (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • Dignity Therapy Helps Terminally Ill Patients Maintain a Sense of Peace: Early Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Luca Iani, Francesco De Vincenzo, Alice Maruelli, Harvey Max Chochinov, Matilde Ragghianti, Sieva Durante & Luigi Lombardo - 2020 - Frontiers in Psychology 11.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  • Euthanasia and assisted suicide for people with an intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorder: an examination of nine relevant euthanasia cases in the Netherlands.Irene Tuffrey-Wijne, Leopold Curfs, Ilora Finlay & Sheila Hollins - 2018 - BMC Medical Ethics 19 (1):17.
    Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legally possible in the Netherlands since 2001, provided that statutory due care criteria are met, including: voluntary and well-considered request; unbearable suffering without prospect of improvement; informing the patient; lack of a reasonable alternative; independent second physician’s opinion. ‘Unbearable suffering’ must have a medical basis, either somatic or psychiatric, but there is no requirement of limited life expectancy. All EAS cases must be reported and are scrutinised by regional review committees. The purpose of this (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  • Palliative care nursing involvement in end-of-life decision-making: Qualitative secondary analysis.Pablo Hernández-Marrero, Emília Fradique & Sandra Martins Pereira - 2019 - Nursing Ethics 26 (6):1680-1695.
    Background: Nurses are the largest professional group in healthcare and those who make more decisions. In 2014, the Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe launched the “Guide on the decision-making process regarding medical treatment in end-of-life situations” (hereinafter, Guide), aiming at improving decision-making processes and empowering professionals in making end-of-life decisions. The Guide does not mention nurses explicitly. Objectives: To analyze the ethical principles most valued by nurses working in palliative care when making end-of-life decisions and investigate if (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • How palliative care patients’ feelings of being a burden to others can motivate a wish to die. Moral challenges in clinics and families.Heike Gudat, Kathrin Ohnsorge, Nina Streeck & Christoph Rehmann‐Sutter - 2019 - Bioethics 33 (4):421-430.
    The article explores the underlying reasons for patients’ self‐perception of being a burden (SPB) in family settings, including its impact on relationships when wishes to die (WTD) are expressed. In a prospective, interview‐based study of WTD in patients with advanced cancer and non‐cancer disease (organ failure, degenerative neurological disease, and frailty) SPB was an important emerging theme. In a sub‐analysis we examined (a) the facets of SPB, (b) correlations between SPB and WTD, and (c) SPB as a relational phenomenon. We (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • Self‐perceived burden to others as a moral emotion in wishes to die. A conceptual analysis.Christoph Rehmann-Sutter - 2019 - Bioethics 33 (4):439-447.
    Patients at the end of their life who express a wish to die sometimes explain their wish as the desire not to be a burden to others. This feeling needs to be investigated as an emotion with an intrinsically dialogical structure. Using a phenomenological approach, two key meanings of the feeling of being a burden to others as a reason for a wish to die are identified. First, it is an existential suffering insofar as it contains the perception of a (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • Assumptions and moral understanding of the wish to hasten death: a philosophical review of qualitative studies.Andrea Rodríguez-Prat & Evert van Leeuwen - 2018 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 21 (1):63-75.
    It is not uncommon for patients with advanced disease to express a wish to hasten death. Qualitative studies of the WTHD have found that such a wish may have different meanings, none of which can be understood outside of the patient’s personal and sociocultural background, or which necessarily imply taking concrete steps to ending one’s life. The starting point for the present study was a previous systematic review of qualitative studies of the WTHD in advanced patients. Here we analyse in (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • Feeling like a burden to others and the wish to hasten death in patients with advanced illness: A systematic review.Andrea Rodríguez‐Prat, Albert Balaguer, Iris Crespo & Cristina Monforte‐Royo - 2019 - Bioethics 33 (4):411-420.
    Studies that have explored the wish to hasten death (WTHD) in patients with advanced illness have found that the feeling of being a burden may trigger WTHD. Research suggests that both the feeling and the wish are indicators of multidimensional suffering whose meaning may depend on the patient's biographical background. Therefore, we carried out a systematic review and meta‐ethnography. Fourteen qualitative studies, reported in 16 articles, met the inclusion criteria. The analysis identified two themes: the personal and social dimensions that (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • A bioethical perspective on the meanings behind a wish to hasten death: a meta-ethnographic review.Paulo J. Borges, Pablo Hernández-Marrero & Sandra Martins Pereira - 2024 - BMC Medical Ethics 25 (1):1-35.
    BackgroundThe expressions of a “wish to hasten death” or “wish to die” raise ethical concerns and challenges. These expressions are related to ethical principles intertwined within the field of medical ethics, particularly in end-of-life care. Although some reviews were conducted about this topic, none of them provides an in-depth analysis of the meanings behind the “wish to hasten death/die” based specifically on the ethical principles of autonomy, dignity, and vulnerability. The aim of this review is to understand if and how (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation