Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment: the necessity of discrepancies in ethical reasoning

Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment: the necessity of discrepancies in ethical reasoning

Observations can be proposed regarding the study by Rydvall and Lynöe [1]. The use of standardised questionnaires in the general population measures the intention of the persons interviewed but not the reality of reasoning in a concrete clinical situation. Most studies report that factors such as proxy comprehension and symptoms of anxiety or depression are major determinants of medical end-of-...

Considerations regarding withholding/withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.

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...

Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment: a comparative study of the ethical reasoning of physicians and the general public

BACKGROUND Our objective was to investigate whether a consensus exists between the general public and health care providers regarding the reasoning and values at stake on the subject of life-sustaining treatment. METHODS A postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of members of the adult population (n = 989) and to a random sample of intensive care doctors and neurosurgeons (n = 410) p...

Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in children.

Modern medicine gives us the ability to prolong life even in situations where it may not be right to do so. This article discusses some of the complex ethical and legal issues surrounding withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in children, including the concepts of futility, best interests and intolerability. We advocate the use of a structured framework to help guide decision-ma...