Intentionally hastening death by withholding or withdrawing treatment

Withholding or withdrawing treatment and palliative treatment hastening death: the real reason why doctors are not held legally liable for murder.

Doctors who hasten the termination of the lives of their patients by withholding or withdrawing treatment or prescribing a potentially fatal palliative dose of medication satisfy the elements of intention and causation of a charge of murder against them. However, the courts have held that, for policy reasons based on 'society's legal convictions', such conduct is not unlawful if the patient con...

Legal issues in withholding or withdrawing medical treatment.

I t is often pointed out that the great modern advances in medical science and technology have presented us with choices and issues we never before had to confront. This is unquestionably true. The overall issue of this article is “When is it appropriate and necessary to use technology to prolong life?” Not many years ago, there would have been nothing to discuss. Those who were healthy enough ...

Considerations regarding withholding/withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.

Ethical aspects of withdrawing and withholding treatment.

Decisions about withdrawing and withholding treatment are common in health care. During almost every encounter between health professionals and patients a decision needs to be made about treatment options. In most cases these choices do not pose any difficulty, for example, starting antibiotics when a patient has an infection. However, decisions not to treat, or to stop treating, raise fundamen...

Knowledge of the law about withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment by intensivists and other specialists.

OBJECTIVE Decisions about withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment (WWLST) from adults who lack capacity are an integral part of intensive care (IC) practice. We compare the knowledge, attitudes and practice of intensivists in relation to the law about WWLST with six other specialties most often involved in end-of-life care. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS We used a cross-section...