Ethical considerations at the end-of-lifecare

摘要

The goal of end-of-life care for dying patients is to prevent or relievesuffering as much as possible while respecting the patients’ desires.However, physicians face many ethical challenges in end-of-life care.Since the decisions to be made may concern patients’ family membersand society as well as the patients, it is important to protect therights, dignity, and vigor of all parties involved in the clinicalethical decision-making process. Understanding the principlesunderlying biomedical ethics is important for physicians to solve theproblems they face in end-of-life care. The main situations thatcreate ethical difficulties for healthcare professionals are thedecisions regarding resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, artificialnutrition and hydration, terminal sedation, withholding andwithdrawing treatments, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide.Five ethical principles guide healthcare professionals in themanagement of these situations.