The ethics of palliative care and euthanasia: exploring common values

Abstract

The ethical underpinnings of palliative care and those of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide (VE/AS) are often viewed as opposites. In this article, we review the values held in common by the euthanasia legalization movement and palliative care providers. Outlining this common ground serves to define, with greater clarity, the issues on which differences do exist, and ways in which some open questions, which are as yet unresolved, could be approached. Open discussion between VE/AS legalization advocates and palliative care providers is important to address these open questions seriously, and to enrich the care of terminally ill patients by giving members of both groups access to each other's experience.