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"No" to the intention/foresight distinction in medical end-of-life decisions
1Centre for Human Bioethics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Medicine and Law
|January 1, 1997
Abstract:
The idea that the permissibility of an action (or an omission) depends on the agent's intention has played an important role in traditional moral thinking and the law and determines, at least in part, the permissibility of medical end-of-life decisions. I argue that there are good reasons why the law ought not, in end-of-life decisions, focus on the doctor's intention. The patient's interests or rights are a more appropriate focus.