„PACIJENTOVO PISMO“ KAO PRAVNI OSNOV ZA PRIMENU PASIVNE EUTANAZIJE

Abstract

The subject of the paper is the relationship between the duties of physicians and other medical professionals towards the dying patient (as a provider of medical services) and the patient's right to personal choice and preservation of his own right to self-determination in relation to body and life, which is a special subjective civil right. The author discusses the legal-medical (but also ethical) issue of the patient's ability to freely decide not to agree to a medical measure of artificial prolongation of life or suspension of already started measures. The issue is examining the limits of the so-called permissibility of “passive euthanasia”, which is indirectly recognized in domestic law by the Law on Patients' Rights and the legal basis for its application in one particular modality, the so-called "Patient letter" (living will) which is an established legal instrument in some foreign legislation and practice. Analyzing the experience of some foreign countries, the author supports the introduction of such an institute - as a kind of anticipated directives in domestic law, referring to the patient's constitutional right to self-determination, which embodies the supreme good, even more valuable than (unwanted) life. Such a solution is in line with the principle of human will autonomy, freedom to dispose of life as a personal good, and potentially a reflection of the so-called "the right to die", which is the reverse of the right to life.