BIOETYKA / WPROWADZENIE

BIOETYKA / WPROWADZENIE - Przeglądy aktów prawnych

Protection of the human rights and dignity of the terminally ill and the dying – Rada Europy rekomendacja 1418 (1999)

9. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers encourage the member states of the Council of Europe to respect and protect the dignity of terminally ill or dying persons in all respects:

b. by protecting the terminally ill or dying person’s right to self-determination, while taking the necessary measures:

9.2.1. to give effect to a terminally ill or dying person’s right to truthful and comprehensive, yet compassionately delivered information on his or her health condition while respecting an individual’s wish not to be informed;

9.2.2. to enable any terminally ill or dying person to consult doctors other than his or her usual doctor;

9.2.3. to ensure that no terminally ill or dying person is treated against his or her will while ensuring that he or she is neither influenced nor pressured by another person. Furthermore, safeguards are to be envisaged to ensure that their wishes are not formed under economic pressure;

9.2.4. to ensure that a currently incapacitated terminally ill or dying person’s advance directive or living will refusing specific medical treatments is observed. Furthermore, to ensure that criteria of validity as to the scope of instructions given in advance, as well as the nomination of proxies and the extent of their authority are defined; and to ensure that surrogate decisions by proxies based on advance personal statements of will or assumptions of will are only to be taken if the will of the person concerned has not been expressed directly in the situation or if there is no recognisable will. In this context, there must always be a clear connection to statements that were made by the person in question close in time to the decision-making situation, more precisely at the time when he or she is dying, and in an appropriate situation without exertion of pressure or mental disability. To ensure that surrogate decisions that rely on general value judgements present in society should not be admissible and that, in case of doubt, the decision must always be for life and the prolongation of life;

9.2.5. to ensure that – notwithstanding the physician’s ultimate therapeutic responsibility – the expressed wishes of a terminally ill or dying person with regard to particular forms of treatment are taken into account, provided they do not violate human dignity;

9.2.6. to ensure that in situations where an advance directive or living will does not exist, the patient’s right to life is not infringed upon. A catalogue of treatments which under no condition may be withheld or withdrawn is to be defined;