PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lars Johan Materstvedt
AU  - Morten Magelssen
TI  - Medical murder in Belgium and the Netherlands
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2015-103128
DP  - 2016 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 621--624
VI  - 42
IP  - 9
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/42/9/621.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/42/9/621.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2016 Sep 01; 42
AB  - This article is a response to Raphael Cohen-Almagor's paper entitled ‘First do no harm: intentionally shortening lives of patients without their explicit request in Belgium’. His paper deals with very important matters of life and death, however its concept usage is in part misleading. For instance, the fact that medical murder takes place both in Belgium and the Netherlands is missed. Cohen-Almagor calls such acts ‘worrying’ and considers them to be ‘abuse’. However, it remains an open question whether or not there can be such a thing as legitimate murder in a medical context. From the combined perspectives of justice and the duty to end unbearable suffering, there might be. Thus, key arguments for euthanasia are also prominent in an argument for medical murder.