Withdrawing or Withholding Treatment

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...

Withdrawing and withholding treatment: comments on new guidelines.

A new practice framework for clinicians has recently been issued by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health through their Ethics Advisory Committee. It deals with babies and children for whom intensive treatment may not be in their best interest. These are diYcult cases. Absolute certainty is rarely possible; there are inevitably issues of conscience and conflict, which add to the bur...

Withholding and withdrawing of life sustaining treatment in the newborn.

The rapid progress of medical technology has resulted in more opportunities to maintain the life of infants in serious and potentially life threatening situations. Whether to treat such infants is a common dilemma. The burden of these difficult decisions rests almost equally on distraught parents and relatives and on the professional staff of neonatal units. Sometimes, either parents or care te...