We Want More Than Life-Sustaining Treatment during End-of-Life Care: Focus-Group Interviews

Should we respect precedent autonomy in life-sustaining treatment decisions?

The recent judgement in the case of Re:M in which the Court held that it would be unlawful to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration from a woman in a minimally conscious state raises a number of ethical issues of wide application. Central to these is the extent to which precedent autonomous decisions should be respected in the absence of a legally binding advance decision. Well-being inte...

Refusing life-sustaining treatment: can we just say no?

End-of-life care: challenges and obligations in setting limits to life-sustaining therapy.

It is now generally accepted that the withholding or withdrawal of interventions that serve only to prolong the dying process is appropriate. Setting limits to life-sustaining therapy are now common practice. However, making such decisions can be challenging. They are also not uncommonly a source of disagreement between the physician and the patient or surrogate. The potential for strained pati...

[End-of-life care in pediatrics: much more than a fight against entropy].

Como citar este artigo: Rotta AT. Cuidados no final da vida em pediatria: muito mais que uma luta contra a entropia. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2005;81:93-5. Devo ter faltado à aula no dia em que ensinaram sobre morte na Faculdade de Medicina. Entretanto, mesmo que meus sábios mestres tivessem dedicado todas as aulas daquele dia frio de junho de 1985 a rebuscadas dissertações sobre o processo de morte,...

Doctors’ learning experiences in end-of-life care – a focus group study from nursing homes

BACKGROUND Doctors often find dialogues about death difficult. In Norway, 45% of deaths take place in nursing homes. Newly qualified medical doctors serve as house officers in nursing homes during internship. Little is known about how nursing homes can become useful sites for learning about end-of-life care. The aim of this study was to explore newly qualified doctors' learning experiences with...