Ethics committee or death panel?

Originally posted by @athousandyoung
Who decides if the parent knows the child will be saved by the medicine and what should be the penalty?

A) My scenario stated that the parent did know it;

B) The penalty is not relevant to the discussion which focused on morality, not legality.

When I said:

Removing life sustaining treatment from someone conscious and begging for it not to be terminated differs from intentional murder ............................................................... how again?

I was not making a legalistic argument; the law can be anything legislators want. I was posing a moral and ethical question.

If the physician relationship is analogous to the parent child relationship, based upon your previous postings about such relationships, the physician should get to make the final call and nobody is in a position to punish him or her for their decision.

Originally posted by @athousandyoung
If the physician relationship is analogous to the parent child relationship, based upon your previous postings about such relationships, the physician should get to make the final call and nobody is in a position to punish him or her for their decision.

You have pretty badly misunderstood the nature of a fiduciary relationship if that is your conclusion.

Originally posted by @no1marauder
You have pretty badly misunderstood the nature of a fiduciary relationship if that is your conclusion.

In this case the physicians “know what is best for the patient” and that is removal from life support. Who are you to judge them for doing what they know is best for their patient?

Originally posted by @athousandyoung
In this case the physicians “know what is best for the patient” and that is removal from life support. Who are you to judge them for doing what they know is best for their patient?

I suggest you reread the materials I have linked to regarding a fiduciary relationship; nowhere do they suggest that a fiduciary has unlimited power to define the "best interest" of the other person (which in this case means overriding that person's wish not to be dead).

Originally posted by @no1marauder
I suggest you reread the materials I have linked to regarding a fiduciary relationship; nowhere do they suggest that a fiduciary has unlimited power to define the "best interest" of the other person (which in this case means overriding that person's wish not to be dead).

According to your link:

The physician-patient relationship is a member of a special class of legal relationships called fiduciary relationships.

This is why I asked why you are quoting laws when discussing morality. Fiduciary relationships are legal relationships.

Originally posted by @athousandyoung
According to your link:

The physician-patient relationship is a member of a special class of legal relationships called fiduciary relationships.

This is why I asked why you are quoting laws when discussing morality. Fiduciary relationships are legal relationships.

They are laws based on an underlying morality, not a morality based on subsequent law.