Rapid technological developments in contemporary medicine offer new medical interventions at the end of life. Not all of these new possibilities serve the classic goals of medicine, however, raising new ethical issues such as how to define death, active and passive euthanasia, and withdrawal and withholding of treatment at the end of life. Such ethical problems take on an increasingly complex character in a multicultural society, especially when linguistic und cultural barriers between healthcare staff and patients exist, as is the case in the relationship between Muslim patients and non-Muslim physicians in the German health care system. This article discusses the Muslim understanding of death and dying and ethical arguments which inform the Islamic discourse about brain death and active and passive euthanasia. Furthermore, it describes some ethical conflicts in the medical practises of multicultural society as illustrated by real cases. The author of this article argues that our multicultural society urgently needs to develop the concept of a culturally sensitive advance directive / living will (Patientenverfügung). The author is convinced that the application of such a culturally sensitive advance directive will be not free of problems, however, with appropriate concepts being required to overcome them.

Enthalten in:
Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik; 2008/1 Kommentare, Studien, Berichte, Dokumentationen, Diskussionen, Rezensionen, Bibliographie (2008)

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Serie / Reihe: Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik

Personen: Ilkilic, Ilhan

Schlagwörter: Sterben Tod Islam Sterbehilfe Medizinische Ethik Patientenverfügung