End of life medical care and the test of the law
Type de matériel :
64
Responding to patients' wish to reclaim the last moments of their lives, the Léonetti law provided a framework for end-of-life medical practices. This legal interference in the medical arts only truly revealed the power of the changes it caused once it had come to be applied by “juge des référés-libertés” for interim measures in matters of civil liberties. When patients or their relatives bring their cases before these judges, seeking not to be allowed an end to their misery but rather to continue to pursue treatments deemed unreasonable by caregivers, judges must consider the legal compliance of end-of-life medical decisions, in real time, and order doctors to resume treatments as requested by the patient. Despite the legitimacy of the reforms and progress in patients' rights made by the recent decision of the Constitutional Council, judges and doctors are to this day still trying to achieve a balance between their duties. We must take a hard look at the issues involved in the judicialization of end-of-life medical practices and the limits that need to be put in place in order to be sure that the empowerment of patients' rights will not ultimately take place to their detriment.
Réseaux sociaux