Not just euthanasia: recognizing a legal positive right to palliative care

As jurists, doctors, and ethicists are increasingly engaged in the debate as to whether and how to legalize euthanasia as a matter of public policy, less debate takes place on what it is submitted ought naturally to come before, i.e. the affirmation of a legal right to palliative care. In Israel, the draft law The Terminally Ill Patient (2001) includes a palliative care provision. It is submitted that such provision, laudable as it is, appears within a euthanasia-oriented framework and is given too limited a scope. Hence the suggestion that palliative care be given an autonomous role, and be recognized as a positive legal right.