The Hastings Center Guidelines for Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment and Care Near the End of Life

The Hastings Center Guidelines for Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment and Care Near the End of Life PDF

Author: Nancy Berlinger

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-04-26

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0199974578

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This major new work updates and significantly expands The Hastings Center's 1987 Guidelines on the Termination of Life-Sustaining Treatment and Care of the Dying. Like its predecessor, this second edition will shape the ethical and legal framework for decision-making on treatment and end-of-life care in the United States. This groundbreaking work incorporates 25 years of research and innovation in clinical care, law, and policy. It is written for physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals and is structured for easy reference in difficult clinical situations. It supports the work of clinical ethicists, ethics committee members, health lawyers, clinical educators, scholars, and policymakers. It includes extensive practical recommendations. Health care reform places a new set of challenges on decision-making and care near the end of life. The Hastings Center Guidelines are an essential resource.

Deciding to Forego Life-sustaining Treatment

Deciding to Forego Life-sustaining Treatment PDF

Author: United States. President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research

Publisher:

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 572

ISBN-13:

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Abstract: A comprehensive report by the US President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research addresses some of the most important and troubling ethical and legal questions in modern medicine for consideration by health care professionals, lawyers, and relatives of patients regarding the sensitive topic of voluntary cessation of life-sustaining therapy for the seriously ill. It was concluded that the cases that involve true ethical difficulties are much fewer than commonly believed and that the perception of difficulties primarily occurs because of misunderstandings about the dictates of law and ethics. It also is concluded that, while competent informed patients have the authority to decline or accept health care, others must act on the behalf of incompetent patients. The report urges that health care institutions develop and use internal review methods that permit exploration of all relevant issues. The 7 report chapters are grouped around 2 themes: the various aspects of making treatment decisions; and patient groups raising special concerns (e.g.: permanently-unconscious patients; seriously-ill newborns. (wz).

Society's Choices

Society's Choices PDF

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1995-03-27

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 0309051320

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Breakthroughs in biomedicine often lead to new life-giving treatments but may also raise troubling, even life-and-death, quandaries. Society's Choices discusses ways for people to handle today's bioethics issues in the context of America's unique history and cultureâ€"and from the perspectives of various interest groups. The book explores how Americans have grappled with specific aspects of bioethics through commission deliberations, programs by organizations, and other mechanisms and identifies criteria for evaluating the outcomes of these efforts. The committee offers recommendations on the role of government and professional societies, the function of commissions and institutional review boards, and bioethics in health professional education and research. The volume includes a series of 12 superb background papers on public moral discourse, mechanisms for handling social and ethical dilemmas, and other specific areas of controversy by well-known experts Ronald Bayer, Martin Benjamin, Dan W. Brock, Baruch A. Brody, H. Alta Charo, Lawrence Gostin, Bradford H. Gray, Kathi E. Hanna, Elizabeth Heitman, Thomas Nagel, Steven Shapin, and Charles M. Swezey.