The Supreme Court’s decisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering.
Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of "double effects" a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects — a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen- is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect.
Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients’ pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient.
Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who "until now have very, very strongly insisted that
A. doctors used to increase drug dosages to control their patients’ pain
B. it is still illegal for doctors to help the dying end their lives
C. the Supreme Court strongly opposes physician-assisted suicide
D. patients have no constitutional right to commit suicide
The Supreme Court’s decisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering.
Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of "double effects" a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects — a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen- is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect.
Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients’ pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient.
Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who "until now have very, very strongly insisted that
A. Doctors will be held guilty if they risk their patients’ death.
B. Modern medicine has assisted terminally ill patients in painless recovery.
C. The Court ruled that high-dosage pain-relieving medication can be prescribed.
D. A doctor’s medication is no longer justified by his intentions.
| The Supreme Court’s decisions on
physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeks
to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering. Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of "double effect," a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects--a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen--is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect. Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients’ pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient. Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who "until now ha A. doctors used to increase drug dosages to control their patients’ pain B. it is still illegal for doctors to help the dying end their lives C. the Supreme Court strongly opposes physician-assisted suicide D. patients have no constitutional right to commit suicide [单项选择] Passage One
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