ABSTRACT
Ethical decision-making at the end of life has become more complicated as medical technology continues to be developed and deployed at an accelerating rate. The successes of medicine generate rising social expectations of the health care system. Americans are living longer than ever before. They are now dying in hospitals rather than at home. The so-called “right-to-die” movement and the attempt to legalize physician-assisted death challenges courts, legislatures, health professionals, and bioethicists to discern humane and morally acceptable ways of assisting patients and their families as death approaches. This paper examines where we have come from, where we are, and where we are likely to head with respect to ethical issues at the end of life. The legal histories of right-to-die cases and of physician-assisted suicide are briefly reviewed, and possible solutions to some of our more intractable problems are presented.
The most common and pressing ethical issues at the end of life arise for those who the in hospitals and nursing homes .
