Withdrawal of treatment for minors in a persistent vegetative state: parents should decide.

Patients in the persistent vegetative state: problems in their long term management.

Physicians responsible for the long term management of patients in the persistent vegetative state face several problems. These include deciding whether tube feeding is treatment or nutritional care, whether withdrawal of tube feeding is an appropriate form of management, what clinical advantage there is in active treatment; at what level of awareness can a patient be said to have a quality of ...

Persistent vegetative state, withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration, and the patient's "best interests".

Editorial Persistent vegetative state, withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration, and the patient's "best interests" In this issue of the journal Anthea Fenwick, an Edinburgh University graduate law student, robustly challenges the use of "best interests" by English judges in the context of permitting withdrawal of life-supporting nutrition and hydra-tion from patients in persistent vege...

Withdrawal of DDAVP in the persistent vegetative state: a hospital ethics committee case study.

Best interests in persistent vegetative state.

Letters Best interests in persistent vegetative state SIR While I agree with several points raised in your recent editorial' on my paper, Applying best interests to persistent vegetative state-a principled distortion?,2 I must respond to a number of other issues which you raise. I agree unreservedly with your caveat that both doctors and judges must act within the law. My paper, however, sought...

Applying best interests to persistent vegetative state--a principled distortion?

"Best interests" is widely accepted as the appropriate foundation principle for medico-legal decisions concerning treatment withdrawal from patients in persistent vegetative state (PVS). Its application appears to progress logically from earlier use regarding legally incompetent patients. This author argues, however, that such confidence in the relevance of the principle of best interests to PV...