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Terminally Informed Consent Case Study

1384 Words6 Pages

Issue: Is it legal and ethical to withdraw life-sustaining medical treatments from a terminally ill adult patient?
Yes, the right of an adult patient in receiving or not receiving medical treatment under the legal and ethical standards requires the patient to provide informed consent. If the patient cannot provide informed consent, a legally authorized surrogate can make a decision. The same legal and ethical standards apply for the terminally ill adult patient in the case of withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments. In other ways, medical ethics does not involve the life of a patient to be preserved in all circumstances at all costs. Discussion
Almost all states have statutes supporting the right of adult patients to refuse care and to provide …show more content…

This process is called informed consent and includes the nature of the decision, reasonable alternatives, risks, benefits, and uncertainty to alternatives, assessment of patient understanding, and the acceptance of intervention. When the patient is able to provide informed consent, the treatment options should be followed because of the legal standards and ethical principle of respecting the patient’s autonomy. In other ways, if the patient unable to provide informed consent due to unconsciousness, the legally authorized surrogate may be able to provide informed consent (Koppel & Sullivan, 2011). Therefore, the patient’s autonomy is the first step in determining the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments. As the informed consent law indicated, an adult with thorough mind patient is the sole intermediary what should be done on his/ her own body either to accept life-sustaining treatment or to refuse at all as long as he/ she understand the consequences. The decision making about the medical treatment shall serve as the fundamental legal and ethical basis for withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment option. Hence, legal authority to withdrawal life-sustaining treatment is the basis of the patient’s autonomy. The underlying principle of legal and ethical consensus in decision-making capacity of the patient may withdraw the …show more content…

However, the responsible and trusted caregiver team must take an action through multiple processes in order to favor the patient. Although the physicians have known earlier when the terminally ill patient near to die, they are not comfortable with withdrawing of life-sustaining treatments. The intention is not to kill the patient, but using the available technology and creating a moral obligation to use what ethical principle prescribes. Underlining the disease process cannot be reversed, life-sustaining treatment can be withdrawn acknowledging that the treatment limitation (Reynolds, Coper, & McKneally, 2005). Ethics committee is a helpful source of advice that can provide consultation about ethical issues in treatment limitation. Because of the valuable outcomes in resolving ethical issues in end-of-life care, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of health care organizations requires the health care facilities to establish ethics committee (Derse,

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