Citation

Orlins Z. Int. J. Psychiatry Med. 2018; 53(4): 306-309.

Affiliation

Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Ohio University, Columbus, OH, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0091217417749797

PMID

29292667

Abstract

Psychiatrists may be among the clinicians to encounter a depressed and suicidal patient who wishes to discontinue life-sustaining treatment. A patient who is suffering from a condition such as dysarthria makes decision-making capacity (a physician's determination of a patient's ability to medically consent) increasingly difficult to assess. The clinician must balance ethical principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice in order to achieve a plan of care that is in the patient's best interest.

Language: en

Keywords

capacity; end-of-life decisions; ethics; life-sustaining treatment; suicide