Even though the patient has autonomy to choose a treatment, physician can explain its implications and try to emphasize on its consequences. Physician can work according to “deontological theory” and perform their duties to gain greatest good for the patient and act for patients benefit. Physicians can perform their duties rightfully by providing patients detailed information about the benefits, limitations and drawbacks of that treatment. Healthcare professionals can play an important role by providing detailed information about an advanced medical treatment which can be used during end-of-life care. Physician’s Role and Responsibilities to Resolve the Issue This gives importance to the ethical issue of autonomy surrounding end-of-life care preferences.Ģ.2. They receive end-of-life care which is in-consistent with their end-of-life care preferences. To elaborate further, autonomy gives patients’ a right to control their treatment according to their preferences, though many a times their autonomy is not respected. Įven though we are discussing about patients right to autonomy we are talking about its limitations.
END OF LIFE DECISIONS ETHICS PROFESSIONAL
The healthcare professional should respect the patient’s autonomy while considering its limitation and carry out their duties to benefit the patient without doing harm. This right of autonomy has some limitations, and hence faces an ethical dilemma. The person’s right to autonomously voice their end-of-life treatment choices has to be respected ethically considering the use of advance treatments and their prognosis.
The Federal Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) effective since 1991 has facilitated communication between the healthcare providers and patients or consumers. Persons have a right to put forward their end-of-life treatment preferences. “Decision making” is itself a very complex process of thoughts and sets-up various challenges for patients and their families to make up an end-of-life care decision. This is a US centered study and the text does not necessarily apply to countries and contexts outside the United States. The purpose of this narrative review is to discuss issues such as autonomous decision making, importance of advance directives, rationing of care in futile treatments and costs involved in providing end-of-life care.
Hence, end-of-life care is facing various ethical dilemmas. “Decision-making” for end-of-life care has earned paramount importance as it has capability to prolong human life with the support of medical technologies or can let the natural death process continue by foregoing the treatment option. Hence, these medical advancements have empowered patients and their families (proxies) with an important task of choosing their treatment preference during end-of-life care. Even though medical treatments have advanced technologically they hold no promises for recovery, they can sustain life with or without meaningful existence or with secondary support (like feeding tubes, ventilators, etc.). Medical technologies are facilitating to reshape the circumstances around natural death, by sustaining human lives. These technologically advanced treatments have a capability to intervene at the time of death and prolong the lives of people. Advancements in medical technology are changing the norms of natural death. All human-beings are mortals and hence death is an inevitable occurrence.
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