Withholding and withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration.

Factors related to adult patient decision making about withholding or withdrawing nutrition and/or hydration.

End-of-life decisions that focus on withholding or withdrawing nutrition and/or hydration present difficult choices at particularly vulnerable times for patients and families. Clinical ethics studies published in the last twenty years provide insight about the decision making process that can be useful to all parties involved. The purpose of the systematic research review is to synthesize empir...

A moral dilemma: the role of judicial intervention in withholding or withdrawing nutrition and hydration.

Removing life support: motivations, obligations. An opinion on NCCB Committee for Pro-Life Activities' statement on artificial hydration and nutrition.

In April 1992 the Committee for Pro-Life Activities of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a resource paper titled "Nutrition and Hydration: Moral and Pastoral Reflections." At best, this document and its conclusions may be viewed as a pastoral statement, offering some tentative reasoning and conclusions to be considered in cases that concern the use of medically assisted nutriti...

Withdrawing and withholding artificial nutrition and hydration from patients in a minimally conscious state: re: M and its repercussions.

In 2011 the English Court of Protection ruled that it would be unlawful to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration from a woman, M, who had been in a minimally conscious state for 8 years. It was reported as the first English legal case concerning withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration from a patient in a minimally conscious state who was otherwise stable. In the absence of a vali...

Tube feeding dilemmas: can artificial nutrition and hydration be legally or ethically withheld or withdrawn?

The incidence of elderly patients receiving long-term artificial nutrition and hydration via a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) feeding tube is increasing. The wisdom of this practice is debatable when poor quality of life is often the outcome, and this has resulted in a dichotomy of opinions. The legal and ethical implications of withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining nourishment,...