临终医疗的人权法理——“尊严死”概念与边界的思考

Human Rights Jurisprudence in Hospice Care--Thoughts on the Concept and Boundary of“Death with Dignity”

尊严死是人的生命尊严在临终医疗语境下的体现,但在其概念的发展上却异化为一种单一的死亡方式,且常与安乐死概念相混淆,重新阐述尊严死之内涵具有理论和现实的紧迫性。尊严死是尊严的主体性价值反映于临终情境之中,其以平等、自由、德性为内核,并以生命权为其外在依托,投射于医疗语境下衍化为患者知情同意权,并受到公共利益、法律父爱主义、公序良俗原则的制约。尊严死之权利边界范围应在积极治疗与自然死亡之间,以放弃生命权为表现形式的积极安乐死尚不应纳入尊严死之权利范畴。

Death with dignity is the embodiment of the dignity of human life in the context of hospice care.However,in the development of its concept,it has been alienated into a single way of death and is often confused with the concept of euthanasia.It is both theoretically and practically pressing to reinterpret the connotations of death with dignity.Death with dignity is the subjective value of dignity reflected in a hospice situation.It has equality,freedom,and virtue as its core and takes the right to life as its external support.When projected into the medical context,it evolves into a patient’s right to informed consent and is constrained by public interest,legal paternalism,and the principles of public order and morality.The boundary of the right to death with dignity should be between active treatment and natural death.Active euthanasia in the form of giving up the right to life should not be included in the scope of the right to death with dignity.