title: [Prolonging life at any cost? Ethical attempts at new personal freedom regarding and and the end of life].
abstract: The prolongation of life to its extremes "at any cost" has been criticized for decades. The courts have endorsed patient autonomy and patient rights. The number of advance directives has increased considerably. The medical community did after all react appropriately, e.g., by codes of ethics or guidelines. The situation is now in danger of overreaction. The problems of lopsided self-determination are at stake. A new culture of negotiated medical constraint needs both doctor and patient as partners ready to learn how to walk the narrow ridge between overtreatment and just individual choice.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schlaudraff
mesh_terms: D016223:Advance Directives / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000368:Aged; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D005610:Freedom; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012297:Right to Die / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*