Citation

Dubois M. Techniques in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management 2005; 9(3): 133-138.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005)

DOI

10.1053/j.trap.2005.06.007

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The combination of increased life span and medical interventions has created sometimes a protracted dying process, which is the source of many ethical concerns at the end of life. Basic ethical principles, ie, autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and double effect, are the cornerstones of decisions made at the end of life. Examples of items being discussed are: informed consent, advanced directives, surrogate, DNR, hospice and palliative care. New concepts such as "limit settings" on interventions at the end of life or "futility" are now applied. Those new trends have led to situations when patients are given by physicians the means to end their lives by themselves (physician-assisted suicide) or with the help of a health professional (euthanasia) to relieve patients' suffering. Several professional medical organizations (AMA, ACP, AAHPM, for instance) provide ethical guidelines and may help solve end-of-life clinical problems which sometimes present some of the most challenging ethical dilemmas. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

human; Ethics; resuscitation; quality of life; assisted suicide; medical ethics; Palliative care; review; dying; health care organization; informed consent; patient care; medical decision making; practice guideline; terminal care; lifespan; palliative therapy; living will; voluntary euthanasia; justice; End of life; Hospice; Medical decision-making; Double effect; hospice care; unconsciousness