Mr Marty's muddle: a superficial and selective case for euthanasia in Europe.

In April 2004 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe debated a report from its Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee (the Marty Report), which questioned the Council of Europe's opposition to legalising euthanasia. This article exposes the Report's flaws, not least its superficiality and selectivity.

Beyond Bland: a critique of the BMA guidance on withholding and withdrawing medical treatment.

In Bland the House of Lords held it lawful to withdraw tube-feeding from a patient in a 'persistent vegetative state' (pvs), even with intent to kill him. The British Medical Association (BMA) recently published guidance on the withholding and withdrawal of 'medical treatment', so defined as to include food and water delivered by tube. The guidance endorses the withholding/withdrawal of tube-delivered food and water not only from patients in pvs but also from other non-terminally ill patients, such as those with severe dementia or serious stroke. The underlying justification appears (as in Bland) to be that such lives lack worth. This article offers three major criticisms of the guidance. First, its argument that tube-feeding is medical treatment rather than basic care is weak. Secondly, its reasons for not treating or tube-feeding undermine the BMA's long-standing opposition to active euthanasia and active assisted suicide. Thirdly, it relies heavily on legal precedent at the expense of ethical reasoning.

Voluntary euthanasia under control? Further empirical evidence from The Netherlands.

Nineteen ninety-six saw the publication of a major Dutch survey into euthanasia in the Netherlands. This paper outlines the main statistical findings of this survey and considers whether it shows that voluntary euthanasia is under effective control in the Netherlands. The paper concludes that although there has been some improvement in compliance with procedural requirements, the practice of voluntary euthanasia remains beyond effective control.

Estimation of relative economic value for herd life of dairy cattle from profile equations.

Lifetime records of 122,679 cows from 7557 herds, obtained from Mid States Dairy Records Processing Center (Ames, IA), were used to determine net income and net income for the planning horizon. With a planning horizon of five lactations for each cow, the estimated profit from the replacements was credited to each cow not surviving until fifth calving. Net income was defined as lifetime income minus costs. Net income for the planning horizon was defined as net income plus profit from replacements within the planning horizon. Income was from the sale of milk, calves, and culled cows. Costs were included for heifer rearing, feed, labor, and breeding. Longer herd life yielded greater profit for net income and net income for the planning horizon. The rate of increase in profit for longer herd life was reduced for net income for the planning horizon, which accounts for profit from cows replacing a culled cow compared with profit from net income. The relative economic value (phenotypic standard deviation basis) of production to herd life was 0.18:1 for net income and 0.46:1 for net income for the planning horizon. The relative value for herd life was overestimated by about 2.5 times when profit from replacements was not considered. Values for production relative to herd life increased for high milk prices and low feed prices. Lower prices for culled cows in combination with high prices for milk and feed increased the relative economic value of production.

The gift of blood in Europe: an ethical defence of EC directive 89/381.

Article 3.4 of EC directive 89/381 requires member states to take "all necessary measures to promote Community self-sufficiency in human blood or human plasma" and, for this purpose, to "encourage the voluntary unpaid donation of blood and plasma". This paper presents an ethical case in support of the policy of voluntary, unpaid donation.

Killing, karma and caring: euthanasia in Buddhism and Christianity.

In 1993 The Parliament of the World's Religions produced a declaration known as A Global Ethic which set out fundamental points of agreement on moral tissues between the religions of the world. However, the declaration did not deal explicitly with medical ethics. This article examines Buddhist and Christian perspectives on euthanasia and finds that in spite of their cultural and theological differences both oppose it for broadly similar reasons. Both traditions reject consequentialist patterns of justification and espouse a 'sanctity of life' position which precludes the intentional destruction of human life by act or omission.