Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học Critical Care giúp cho các bạn có thêm kiến thức về y học đề tài: Ethics roundtable debate: should a sedated dying patient be wakened to say goodbye to family? | Available online http content 7 5 335 Commentary Ethics roundtable debate should a sedated dying patient be wakened to say goodbye to family Anna Batchelor1 Leslie Jenal2 Farhad Kapadia3 Stephen Streat4 Leslie Whetstine5 and Brian Woodcock6 Consultant Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine Royal Victoria Infirmary Newcastle UK 2Chaplain Pasadena California USA 3Consultant Physician and Intensivist PD Hinduja National Hospital Bombay India 4Intensivist Department of Critical Care Medicine Auckland Hospital Auckland New Zealand 5PhD Candidate Centre for Healthcare Ethics Duquesne University Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA 6Clinical Assistant Professor Anesthesiology and Critical Care University of Michigan Health System Ann Arbor Michigan USA Correspondence Brian Woodcock bwudcock@ Published online 9 June 2003 Critical Care 2003 7 335-338 DOI cc2329 This article is online at http content 7 5 335 2003 BioMed Central Ltd Print ISSN 1364-8535 Online ISSN 1466-609X Abstract Intensivists have the potential to maintain vital signs almost indefinitely but not necessarily the potential to make moribund patients whole. Current ethical and legal mandates push patient autonomy to the forefront of care plans. When patients are incapable of expressing their preferences surrogates are given proxy. It is unclear how these preferences extend to the very brink of inevitable death. Some say that patients should have the opportunity and authority to direct their death spiral. Others say it would be impossible for them to do so because an inevitable death spiral cannot be effectively palliated. Humane principles dictate they be spared the unrelenting discomfort surrounding death. The present case examines such a patient and the issues surrounding a unique end-of-life decision. Keywords ethics intensive care palliative care terminal care withholding treatment Introduction Brian Woodcock The ability of modern medicine to maintain the human body by
