Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in children.
نویسندگان
چکیده
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-making, particularly in the more difficult situations. The lack of a morally or legally significant difference between withholding and withdrawing treatment is discussed, as is the role of the doctrine of double effect (particularly in relation to the use of neuromuscular blocking agents during withdrawal of ventilatory support).
منابع مشابه
Physicians' decisions to withhold and withdraw life-sustaining treatment.
BACKGROUND Few data are available about physicians' decisions in regard to withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining measures. We therefore studied internists' views on this subject. METHODS We surveyed 1000 generalist and subspecialist internists about their views on withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. Thirty-two hypothetical cases were included. The effect of the demograp...
متن کاملWithdrawing may be preferable to withholding
The majority of deaths on the intensive care unit now occur following a decision to limit life-sustaining therapy, and end-of-life decision making is an accepted and important part of modern intensive care medical practice. Such decisions can essentially take one of two forms: withdrawing -- the removal of a therapy that has been started in an attempt to sustain life but is not, or is no longer...
متن کاملنگرش و عملکرد پزشکان اطفال و زنان و زایمان شهرستانهای ساری و بابل در مورد قطع اقدامات احیا در نوزادان بسیار بدحال
Background and purpose: There are some debates with decision making for withdrawal/ withholding of life sustaining treatment in infants with adverse prognoses and incurable conditions. This study is conducted to review attitudes and practice of pediatrics and gynecology physicians in this field. Materials and methods: This survey was conducted during 2009 in Sari and Babol. A total of 140 pe...
متن کاملDoctors' knowledge of the law on withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining medical treatment.
OBJECTIVES To examine doctors' level of knowledge of the law on withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from adults who lack decision-making capacity, and factors associated with a higher level of knowledge. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Postal survey of all specialists in emergency medicine, geriatric medicine, intensive care, medical oncology, palliative medicine, renal med...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Paediatric anaesthesia
دوره 19 10 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2009