Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T12:27:30.723Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Withholding and Withdrawing Medical Treatment: Legal, Ethical, and Practical Considerations

from Part I - General Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2020

By
Cameron Stewart ,
Tiit Mathiesen ,
Ahmed Ammar  and
Stephen Honeybul
Edited by
Stephen Honeybul
Stephen Honeybul
Affiliation:
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Royal Perth and Fiona Stanley Hospitals
Get access

Summary

Consent also serves a third function - the relational function - by providing an environment that fosters relationships of trust between the treating team, the patient and their family. In neurosurgery, where patients are faced with death and have few if any choices open to them beyond surgery, and where surgery is very risky and its’ outcomes difficult to predict, it can be argued that the permissive and risk functions of consent become less important, and the relational function comes to the fore.

Keywords

withholding treatmentwithdrawing treatmentvalue of lifemedical litigation
Type
Chapter
Information
Ethics in Neurosurgical Practice , pp. 39 - 53
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gedge, E., Giacomini, M., Cook, D. Withholding and withdrawing life support in critical care settings: ethical issues concerning consent. J. Med. Ethics 2007; 33: 215–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Honeybul, S., Gillett, G. R., Ho, K. Futility in neurosurgery: a patient-centered approach. Neurosurgery 2013; 73: 917–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stewart, C. Futility determination as a process: problems with medical sovereignty, legal issues and the strengths and weakness of the procedural approach. J. Bioeth. Inq. 2011; 8: 155–63.Google Scholar
Keown, J. The legal revolution: from ‘sanctity of life’ to ‘quality of life’ and ‘autonomy’. J. Contemp. Health Law Policy 1998; 14: 253–85.Google ScholarPubMed
Ammar, A. Influence of different culture on neurosurgical practice. Childs Nerv. Syst. 1997; 13: 91–4.Google Scholar
Emmerich, N., Gordjin, B. A morally permissible moral mistake? reinterpreting a thought experiment as proof of concept. J. Bioeth. Inq. 2018; 15: 269–78.Google Scholar
Lø, U. Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment: ethically equivalent? Am. J. Bioeth. 2019; 19: 10–20.Google Scholar
Welie, J. V., Ten Have, H. A. The ethics of forgoing life-sustaining treatment: theoretical considerations and clinical decision making. Multidiscip. Respir. Med. 2014; 9: 14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilkinson, D., Savulescu, J. A costly separation between withdrawing and withholding treatment in intensive care. Bioethics 2014; 28: 127–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaller, C., Kessler, M. On the difficulty of neurosurgical end of life decisions. J. Med. Ethics 2006; 32: 65–9.Google Scholar
Carrier, E. R., Reschovsky, J. D., Mello, M. M., et al. Physicians’ fears of malpractice lawsuits are not assuaged by tort reforms. Health Aff. (Millwood) 2010; 29: 1585–92.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×