scholarly journals Ending the life of the act/omission dispute: causation in withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining measures

Legal Studies ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew McGee
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common View ◽  
Legal Position ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One ◽  
End Of Life Decision ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Life Decision

The aim in this paper is to challenge the increasingly common view in the literature that the law on end-of-life decision making is in disarray and is in need of urgent reform. The argument is that this assessment of the law is based on assumptions about the relationship between the identity of the defendant and their conduct, and about the nature of causation, which, on examination, prove to be indefensible. A clarification of the relationship between causation and omissions is provided which proves that the current legal position does not need modification, at least on the grounds that are commonly advanced for the converse view. This paves the way for a clarification, in conclusion, of important conceptual and moral differences between withholding, refusing and withdrawing life-sustaining measures, on the one hand, and assisted suicide and euthanasia, on the other.

The Life of Law and the Law of Life

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Naas
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Law ◽  
Written Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter analyzes a large swath of Plato’s Statesman (287b–311c) in order to ask, with “Plato’s Pharmacy” in the background, about the Stranger’s claim that law—and especially written law, since writing is the essence of law—is at once inferior to rule without law and yet, in a world without divine rulers, absolutely necessary for human governance. This chapter returns to many of the insights from Chapter 2 on the myth of the two ages, since what that myth demonstrated was the desirability and yet impossibility of an age in which a truly divine being rules over human beings and the concomitant necessity of trying to imitate that age through laws. Once again, we see that what is at issue in the relationship between the two ages, as well as in the relationship between a regime without law and a regime with it, are two different valences or valuations of life—the values of pure life, fecundity, spontaneity, and memory, on the one hand, and the values of death in life, forgetting in memory, and sterility in fecundity, on the other.

Agency and Communion in End-of-Life Decision-Making

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond C. Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Autonomous Agent ◽  
Life Transition ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Small Communities ◽  
Agency And Communion ◽  
End Of Life Decision ◽  
Life Decision

Both the assisted suicide and the hospice or palliative medicine movements are alike in that each weighs the wishes of the patient and family for end-of-life medical decisions. The balancing of agency and communion within small communities of support may provide the opportunity to inform end-of-life decision-making and acceptance of the dying process. In this sense, the spirit of “communitas” may instill faith that the ending of one’s life journey is both reasonable and meaningful. The role of the small community of support may be akin to that of the guide who assists the aging or dying person through the dialectic of being an autonomous agent and a communicant in the end-of-life transition.

End of life decision making in healthcare in the prism of Council of Europe’s Human Rights Standards

2021 ◽  
Vol 2(24) ◽  
pp. 137-155
Author(s):  
Daria Bieńkowska
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
End Of Life Decision ◽  
Life Decision

The issue of decisions made at the end of life relating to the so-called “Right to death”, “death in dignity”, which in the literature on the subject is referred to as end-of-life decision making in the legal and medical space, arouses the interest of lawyers and doctors, and due to the specific gravity of the topic, it is also the subject of public debate. This article presents the issue of end-of-life decision making in health care in the light of the standards of the Council of Europe. The main purpose of the problem outlined in this way will be to analyze the legal admissibility of decisions concerning the end of life at the request of the interested person in the legal and human perspective. The summary indicates that despite the lack of a consensus in contemporary Europe as to the understanding of human rights, and hence the admissibility of active euthanasia and assisted suicide, the situation may change with the increasing emphasis on individual autonomy in medical law.

3. Personal Rights and Property Rights

Land Law ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben McFarlane ◽  
Nicholas Hopkins ◽  
Sarah Nield
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Property Right ◽  
The Other ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Personal Rights ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines property rights in land and personal rights that may allow a party to make a particular use of land. It first considers the distinction between personal rights and property rights before addressing the content question: whether the type of right claimed by a party counts as a property right. To answer that question, a distinction is made between different types of property right. The most important distinction is between legal property rights, on the one hand, and equitable property rights, on the other. The chapter also discusses licences to use land and contrasts their operation and effect with those of property rights in land. It highlights the nature of licences and the controversy over contractual and estoppel licences and concludes with an analysis of the relationship between the law of leases and of licence.

3. Personal Rights and Property Rights

Land Law ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 61-92
Author(s):  
Ben McFarlane ◽  
Nicholas Hopkins ◽  
Sarah Nield
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Property Right ◽  
The Other ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Personal Rights ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines property rights in land and personal rights that may allow a party to make a particular use of land. It first considers the distinction between personal rights and property rights before addressing the content question: whether the type of right claimed by a party counts as a property right. To answer that question, a distinction is made between different types of property right. The most important distinction is between legal property rights, on the one hand, and equitable property rights, on the other. The chapter also discusses licences to use land and contrasts their operation and effect with those of property rights in land. It highlights the nature of licences and the controversy over contractual and estoppel licences and concludes with an analysis of the relationship between the law of leases and of licence.

Reactions to Non-Performance of Treaties in International Law

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 759-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
SERENA FORLATI
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Limited Role ◽  
International Responsibility ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractIdentifying the range of lawful reactions to non-performance of treaties is still problematic, as shown by the case concerning the Application of the Interim Accord of 13 September 1995 (FYROM/Greece). After reviewing the current understanding of the relationship between the law of treaties and the law of international responsibility, the author analyses the legal regime pertaining to suspension and termination of treaties on grounds of breach, on the one hand, and, on the other, to countermeasures, arguing that the exceptio inadimpleti contractus may still play an independent, albeit limited, role as a reaction to lawful non-performance of international treaties.

scholarly journals Autonomy – A leading principle in the end-of-life decision making?

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Helena Peterková
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Legal Concept ◽  
Competent Patient ◽  
Patient’S Autonomy ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
End Of Life Decision ◽  
Life Decision

Objective: The objective of this paper is to introduce some of the most specific legal regulations on informed consent and patient’s will and to show the limits of the recognition of patient’s autonomy, especially as the end-of-life issues are regarded. Autonomy of a competent patient is often presented as an overwhelming argument in the end-of-life debate, regardless whether in the context of life termination on request or in the decision making about withdrawal or withholding of the treatment. Despite of the general opinion, that decriminalization of life termination on request is legitimately based on the respect for the patient’s wishes to die, even in the world most liberal end-of-life law of Benelux countries the legal concept seems to be built in a considerably different and more sophisticated way, as it does not solely rely on the request of the patient to be administered the lethal dose. Basically, the will of a competent patient to be let die is to be understood as a reason for the doctors to omit the further medical treatment, even if this omission leads to death of the patient. To the contrary, no actively caused death, as well as actively caused grievous injuries which are not a result of an acknowledged proper treatment, can be pleaded lawful with the reference to the consent of the patient. With this paper, the extent of exercising patient’s autonomy concerning the specific law on euthanasia in some European countries was examined to show on these examples the perhaps too overestimated factual impact of the autonomy principle in the medical law. Methods: Whilst comparing the most liberal legal systems in the world (among others the Swiss and Dutch ones) in which either life termination on request and/or assisted suicide was conditionally decriminalised, a critical analysis was performed to show to what extent and under which circumstances represents the will of a competent patient a defence to a doctor who provided the patient with life termination on request or assisted suicide or let the patient die. Results: According to the analysis, in no legal jurisdiction in the world the will (incl. consent and request) of the patient as such can serve as a full defence; for decriminalisation of the life termination on request or assisted suicide the fulfilment of other criteria must be reached. Conclusions: Although the will of the patient can with no doubt be understood as a conditio sine qua non for decriminalisation of life termination on request and/or assisted suicide, without being accomplished with other legal requirements it cannot be pleaded as full defence. Therefore, as the area of end-of-life decision making is concerned, the primacy of principle of autonomy should not be automatically taken for granted.

Part I Legal and Practical Challenges to Traditional Trade Finance, 2 The Letter of Credit as a Contract

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Booysen Sandra
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Trade Finance ◽  
Letter Of Credit ◽  
Contractual Obligation ◽  
Contract Formation ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter considers the relationships created by the issue of a letter of credit. In particular, it focuses on the relationship between the issuer and/or confirmer of the credit on the one hand, and the seller of the goods on the other. Although the letter of credit is typically referred to as creating a contractual obligation between these parties, and that characterisation is rarely disputed, a closer analysis from a common law perspective reveals that some elements for contract formation appear to be absent. The chapter re-examines this debate in the light of recent developments in the law. It concludes that the relationship is indeed contractual, albeit that some of the contractual prerequisites may be satisfied in an unorthodox way.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document