Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T19:46:15.804Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Cultural Context of End-of-Life Ethics: A Comparison of Germany and Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2010

SILKE SCHICKTANZ ,
AVIAD RAZ  and
CARMEL SHALEV
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

End-of-life (EoL) decisions concerning euthanasia, stopping life-support machines, or handling advance directives are very complex and highly disputed in industrialized, democratic countries. A main controversy is how to balance the patient’s autonomy and right to self-determination with the doctor’s duty to save life and the value of life as such. These EoL dilemmas are closely linked to legal, medical, religious, and bioethical discourses. In this paper, we examine and deconstruct these linkages in Germany and Israel, moving beyond one-dimensional constructions of ethical statements as “social facts” to their conflicting and multifaceted embedding within professional, religious, and cultural perspectives.

Type
Special Section: International Voices 2010
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 381 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Turner, L. From the local to the global. Bioethics and the concept of culture. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 2005;30:305–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. Wertz, DC, Fletcher, JC, eds. Ethics and Human Genetics: A Cross Cultural Perspective. Berlin: Springer; 1989CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Hashiloni-Dolev, Y. A Life (Un)Worthy of Living: Reproductive Genetics in Israel and Germany. Dordrecht: Springer; 2007CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. Bulow, H-H. The world’s major religions’ points of view on end-of-life decisions in the intensive care unit. Intensive Care Medicine 2008;34:423–30CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

5. Schmuhl, H-W. Nationalsozialismus als Argument im aktuellen Medizinethik-Diskurs. Eine Zwischenbilanz [Euthanasia and the recent debate. Historical backgrounds of medical ethics]. In: Frewer, A, Eickhoff, C, eds. Euthanasie und die aktuelle Sterbehilfe-Debatte. Die historischen Hintergründe medizinischer Ethik. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus; 2000:385–407Google Scholar.

6. Leichtentritt, RD, Rettig, K. Meanings and attitudes towards end-of-life preferences in Israel. Death Studies 1999;23:323–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7. The Report of the Public Committee on the Care of the Dying Patient. In: Hurwitz, PJ, Picard, J, Steinberg, A, eds. Jewish Ethics and the Care of End-of-Life Patients. A Collection of Rabbinical, Bioethical, Philosophical, and Juristic Opinions. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.; 2006:207–14Google Scholar.

8. National Ethics Council. German (Nationaler Ethikrat): Selbstbestimmung Fürsorge am Lebensende [Self-determination and Care in End of Life]. Berlin 2006.

9. Haimes, E, Williams, R. Sociology, ethics, and the priority of the particular: Learning from a case study of genetic deliberations. British Journal of Sociology 2007;58(3):457–76CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

10. Steinberg, A. A law proposal in Israel regarding the patient at the end of life. In: Hurwitz, PJ, Picard, J, Steinberg, A, eds. Jewish Ethics and the Care of End-of-Life Patients. A Collection of Rabbinical, Bioethical, Philosophical, and Juristic Opinions. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.; 2006:99–104Google Scholar.

11. Shalev, C. Paternalism and autonomy in end-of-life decision-making: The Israeli normative ambivalence. Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 2000;29:121–36Google Scholar.

12. See note 8, National Ethics Council 2006.

13. Steinbock, B, Norcross, A, eds. Killing and Letting Die, 2nd ed. New York: Fordham University Press; 1994CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Howard-Snyder, D. Doing vs. allowing harm. In: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; 2006, available at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/doing-allowing/ (last accessed 12 Apr 2010)Google Scholar.

14. See note 8, National Ethics Council 2006:47.

15. See note 10, Steinberg 2006:103.

16. Ravitsky, V. Dying with dignity in a Jewish-democratic state. In: Hurwitz, PJ, Picard, J, Steinberg, A, eds. Jewish Ethics and the Care of End-of-Life Patients. A Collection of Rabbinical, Bioethical, Philosophical, and Juristic Opinions. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.; 2006:105–18Google Scholar.

17. Shalev, C. End-of-life care in Israel—The Dying Patient Law 2005. Israel Law Review 2009;42(2):279–305CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18. Barilan, MY. Is the clock ticking for terminally ill patients in Israel? Preliminary comment on a proposal for a bill of rights for the terminally ill. Journal for Medical Ethics 2004;30:353–7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

19. Wahrman, MZ. Brave New Judaism: When Science and Scripture Collide. Hanover, MA: Brandeis University Press; 2002CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Prainsack, B, Firestine, O. “Science for survival”: Biotechnology regulation in Israel. Science and Public Policy 2006;33(1):33–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20. Raz, A. “Important to test, important to support”: Attitudes toward disability rights and prenatal diagnosis among leaders of support groups for genetic disorders in Israel. Social Science and Medicine 2004;59:1857–66CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

21. See note 17, Shalev 2009:289–290.

22. Barilan, MY. Revisiting the problem of Jewish bioethics: The case of terminal care. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 2003;13(2):141–68CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

23. Shapira, A. Law and bioethics in Israel: Between liberal ethical values and Jewish religious norms. Journal International de Bioéthique 2006;17(1–2):115–23Google ScholarPubMed.

24. See note 4, Bulow 2008.

25. Ganz, F, Benbenishty, J, Hersch, M, Fischer, A, Gurman, G, Sprung, CL. The impact of regional culture on intensive care end of life decision making: An Israeli perspective from the ETHICUS study. Journal for Medical Ethics 2006;32:196–9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

26. Sprung, CL, Sara, C, Baras, M, Cohen, SL, Maia, P, Beishuizen, A, et al. . Attitudes of European physicians, nurses, patients, and families regarding end-of-life decisions: The ETHICATT study. Intensive Care Medicine 2007;33(1):104–10CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

27. Kravitz, LS. “Some” reflections on Jewish tradition and the end-of-life patient. In: Hurwitz, PJ, Picard, J, Steinberg, A, eds. Jewish Ethics and the Care of End-of-Life Patients. A Collection of Rabbinical, Bioethical, Philosophical, and Juristic Opinions. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.; 2006:75–98Google Scholar.

28. Enquete-Kommission, Recht und Ethik der Modernen Medizin [Law and ethics of modern medicine – Final Report]. Schlussbericht. Berlin: Deutscher Bundestag; 2002.