
Some patients are intractably and maybe even irredeemably ill. What should be done for them?
Dr Battin is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Medical Ethics at the University of Utah. She has authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited some twenty books, including two collections on end-of-life issues, The Least Worst Death and Ending Life; and a comprehensive sourcebook, The Ethics of Suicide: Historical Sources. She has been named one of the “Mothers of Bioethics.”
Some patients are intractably and maybe even irredeemably ill. What should be done for them?
Patients with terminal illnesses may choose to refuse treatment or even hasten their own deaths, but is that the same thing as suicide?