Response to Kuhse
- 1Department of Pediatrics, The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
- 2Department of Medical Humanities and The Bioethics Center, The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
- Correspondence to: R M Perkin, Professor and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics, The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, 3E-142, Brody Medical Sciences Building, Greenville, NC 27858—4354, USA; perkinr{at}mail.ecu.edu
- Accepted 22 April 2002
- Revised 22 April 2002
Abstract
In this short paper, we respond to critics of our original paper, The agony of agonal respiration: is the last gasp necessary?. A common thread in both Hawryluck’s and Kuhse’s responses is the difficulties encountered when using the agent’s intentions to make moral distinctions between using neuromuscular blocking drugs to palliate versus using neuromuscular blocking drugs to kill. Although this difficulty does exist we maintain that the intentions of the physician must matter when providing end-of-life care.
