THE DOCTOR'S ROLE IN END-OF-LIFE MEDICINE

Due to legislations on euthanasia and its current practice in the Netherlands and Belgium and Luxembourg, issues of end-of-life medicine have become very vital in many European countries. Here, the author rejects medical killing (euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide) as due care and proposes the delivery of palliative care in end-oflife medicine, which calls for a holistically oriented concept where physicians act as companions to the terminally ill and dying patients. Modern palliative care includes both the delivery of competent palliative skills and a virtuous attitude of compassionate caring about the terminally ill patient as an autonomous person.