https://www.medpagetoday.com/resource-c ... dults/2425
这篇虚构的案例,其实写得有点倾向性了,而且挺假的。估计只要是在美国的医生,在这种情况吓,没有人敢下手进行安乐死的。A healthy 67-year-old woman wrote and signed a letter given to her family requesting euthanasia if her health condition deteriorated to the point where she would need to be admitted to a nursing home.
Five years later, the woman had developed dementia...
However, when the physician discussed euthanasia with the patient, she disavowed the letter, and vehemently insisted she did not want to die. Her physician consulted with the family and decided to proceed with the written request for euthanasia.
但是这篇案例实际上是建立在一个真实的 case 之上的,真案例当然不是在美国,而是在荷兰。而且原案件更加模糊复杂,尤其是在细节方面,所以结论也不象这篇虚构案例那样清晰。纽时报道如下:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/worl ... octor.html
问题的关键在于,当这个人写下安乐死意愿书的时候,肯定是 mentally competent 的。当她死前挣扎的时候,她“貌似拒绝”,貌似改主意了,然而,考虑到当时她连自己和家人都不认识了,她的拒绝是本能的反射呢还是真实意愿(很可能失去了产生理智意愿的能力)?如果本能和理智意愿本身就是矛盾的呢?But, when she entered the home, incapacitated, she appeared to have changed her mind, giving “mixed signals,” about her intentions, prosecutors said.
A doctor at the home, now retired and also unidentified, decided to go through with the euthanasia, in close consultation with the family, in the spring of 2016.
“The patient was heavily demented and deemed completely mentally incompetent,” the court said in an online statement. Medical records, heard during the proceedings, said the patient could not recognize her own reflection.
Taking into account the patient’s state, the court ruled that the doctor did not have to verify her wishes at the time of administering euthanasia.