engleski

Ethical Dilemmas of Criminal Policy Regarding the End-of-Life Decisions

Life and death decisions are one of the most active areas of research in contemporary bioethics. These decisions refer to questions of the beginning of life, which include abortion, as well as questions of the end of life: euthanasia and assisted suicide. Since many countries have permitted abortion under certain legal provisions, the most important bioethical topic became the question of end of life decisions. Only few countries in the world have legalized certain forms of euthanasia and assisted suicide. This question is also being discussed within the Council of Europe, but so far there is no legal document regulating this issue: in 2005 during the plenary session in Strasbourg, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) rejected a draft resolution on "assistance to patients at the end of life". In this article we analyze ethical dilemmas of criminal policy regarding end of life decisions on the example of Croatia, where a new Criminal Code is being drafted.

ethical dilemmas; criminal policy regarding end of life decisions; the example of Croatia; new Criminal Code; Council of Europe; euthanasia and assisted suicide

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