Is withdrawing life support ethical?
When an intervention no longer helps to achieve the patient’s goals for care or desired quality of life, it is ethically appropriate for physicians to withdraw it.
Under what circumstances is it acceptable to withdraw life support?
First, because the foregoing of life-sustaining therapy is only legally justified if such support represents unwanted treatment, it should be withheld or withdrawn only with the consent of patients or their surrogates, assuming surrogates are available.
What is withdrawing life sustaining treatment?
The goal of withdrawing life sustaining treatment is to remove treatments that are no longer desired or do not provide comfort to the patient. 2. The withholding of life-sustaining treatments is morally and legally equivalent to their withdrawal.
What is the difference between withdrawing and withholding life sustaining treatment?
Such decisions can essentially take one of two forms: withdrawing – the removal of a therapy that has been started in an attempt to sustain life but is not, or is no longer, effective – and withholding – the decision not to make further therapeutic interventions.
Why are there ethical issues surrounding end-of-life care?
During EOL care, ethical dilemmas may arise from situations such as communication breakdowns, patient autonomy being compromised, ineffective symptom management, non-beneficial care, and shared decision making.
Can a hospital remove life support without family consent?
For instance, according to the American Thoracic Society,14 although doctors should consider both medical and patient values when making treatment recommendations, they may withhold or withdraw treatment without the consent of patients or surrogates if the patient’s survival would not be meaningful in quality or …
What legally allows parents to withhold life sustaining treatment from a terminally ill child?
ADVANCE DIRECTIVES Those two legal documents are 1) a living will or 2) the durable power of attorney. A living will must be properly witnessed by a notary, and allows the patient to state, in writing, that they do not wish to be kept alive by artificial means or heroic measures.
Can I refuse life saving treatment?
Under federal law, the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) guarantees the right to refuse life sustaining treatment at the end of life.
What are the ethical dilemmas in end-of-life care?
How do decisions to withhold and withdraw life support differ ethically?
How decisions to withhold and withdraw life support differ ethically in their implications for positive versus negative interpretations of patient autonomy, imperatives for consent, definitions of futility and the subjective evaluation of (and submission to) benefits and burdens of life support in critical care settings are explored.
Can a patient refuse medical intervention at the end of life?
Whereas a competent and informed patient’s right to refuse medical intervention has been well established in bioethics and Anglo‐American law for more than a decade,1there is less clarity on the role of patient consent in withholding and withdrawing treatment at the end of life and of the ethical and legal status of patient requests for treatment.
Can the RCPCH guidelines be used to advise on treatment withdrawal?
However, while the RCPCH guidelines deal with the ethical and legal aspects of treatment withdrawal and offer general guidance, they cannot offer specific advice in relation to individual children (Wellesley & Jenkins 2009).
When does a reasonable parent not want to discontinue treatment?
It can be argued that a reasonable parent would not want to discontinue treatment that provides a good chance for the child of long term benefit over short term harm (Doyal & Larcher 2000). Similarly a reasonable parent would not want treatment that is medically futile or that prolongs an unbearable life.