Abstract
Over the last decade end-of-life care has made a transition from a passive to an active discipline in order to allow patients a dignified death. The patient’s last days and eventual death can have a profound effect on the patient, his/her family and those involved in his/her healthcare. To this end, it is crucial that doctors understand the ethical and moral concepts surrounding this topic.
In this chapter, these ethically and emotionally charged issues are discussed in the context of the four bioethics principles and the context of the healthcare team. This topic is so important because it potentially affects every single patient who dies of a neurosurgical condition, so two commentators have contributed chapters on this subject (the other is Chap. 8).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Beauchmap TL, Childress JF (1979) Principles of biomedical ethics. Oxford University Press, New York
Bernat JL (1997) Quality of neurological care: balancing cost control and ethics. Arch Neurol 54(11):1341–1345
Bosshard G, Nilstun T, Bilsen J, European End-of-Life Consortium et al (2005) Forgoing treatment at the end of life in 6 European countries. Arch Intern Med 165(4):401–407
Chan R, Webster J (2010) End-of-life care pathways for improving outcomes in caring for the dying (Review). Cochrane Database Syst Rev 1:1–16. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008006.pub2
De Lora P, Blanco AP (2013) Dignifying death and the morality of elective ventilation. J Med Ethics 39(3):145–148
Department of Health (2008) End of life care strategy – promoting high quality care for all adults at the end of life. www.dh.gov.uk/publications
Fowell A, Russell I, Johnstone R et al (2004) Randomisation or randomised consent as an appropriate methodology for trials in palliative care: a feasibility study. BMC Palliat Care 3(1):1
Gomes B, Higginson I (2008) Where people die (1974–2030): past trends, future projections and implications for care. Palliat Med 22:33
Karlawish JH (2003) Conducting research that involves subjects at the end of life who are unable to give consent. J Pain Symptom Manage 25(4):S14–S24
Oppenheim D, Brugières L, Corradini N et al (2004) An ethics dilemma: when parents and doctors disagree on the best treatment for the child. Bull Cancer 91:735–738
Pace A, Di Lorenzo C, Guariglia L et al (2009) End of life issues in brain tumor patients. J Neurooncol 91(1):39–43
Prendergast TJ, Puntillo KA (2002) Withdrawal of life support: intensive caring at the end of life. JAMA 288(2):2732–2740
Reynolds S, Cooper AB, McKneally M (2005) Withdrawing life-sustaining treatment: ethical considerations. Thorac Surg Clin 15(4):469–480
Ruijs CD, Kerkhof AJ, van der Wal G et al (2013) Symptoms, unbearability and the nature of suffering in terminal cancer patients dying at home: a prospective primary care study. BMC Fam Pract 14:201
Sexauer A, Cheng MJ, Knight L et al (2014) Patterns of hospice use in patients dying from hematologic malignancies. J Palliat Med 17(2):195–9
Singer PA, MacDonald N (1998) Bioethics for clinicians: 15. Quality end-of-life care. CMAJ 159:159–162
Singer PA, Robertson G, Roy DJ (1996) Bioethics for clinicians: 6. Advance care planning. CMAJ 155:1689–1692
Szalados JE (2007) Discontinuation of mechanical ventilation at end-of-life: the ethical and legal boundaries of physician conduct in termination of life support. Crit Care Clin 23(2):317–337
Travis S, Bernard M, Dixon S et al (2002) Obstacles to palliation and end-of-life care in a long-term care facility. Gerontologist 42(3):342–349
Varelas PN, Hacein-Bey L, Schultz L et al (2009) Withdrawal of life support in critically ill neurosurgical patients and in-hospital death after discharge from the neurosurgical intensive care unit. Clinical article. J Neurosurg 11(2):396–404
Vincent JL (2001) Cultural differences in end-of-life care. Crit Care Med 292(2):n52–n55
Acknowledgement
The authors thank Mr. Jeremy Sharma for his invaluable help with the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kato, Y., Reid, M. (2014). Dying with Dignity. In: Ammar, A., Bernstein, M. (eds) Neurosurgical Ethics in Practice: Value-based Medicine. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54980-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54980-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-54979-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-54980-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)