Treatment FAQ

what is the difference between withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment?

by Opal Lynch Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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Such decisions can essentially take one of two forms: withdrawing – the removal of a therapy that has been started in an attempt to sustain life but is not, or is no longer, effective – and withholding – the decision not to make further therapeutic interventions.Mar 4, 2005

Is there an ethical difference between withholding and withdrawing treatment?

Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 5.3

While there may be an emotional difference between not initiating an intervention at all and discontinuing it later in the course of care, there is no ethical difference between withholding and withdrawing treatment.

What is withdrawal of life sustaining treatment?

1. The goal of withdrawing life sustaining treatment is to remove treatments that are no longer desired or do not provide comfort to the patient. 2. The withholding of life-sustaining treatments is morally and legally equivalent to their withdrawal.

What does it mean by withholding of treatment?

(5) the term “withholding of medically indicated treatment” means the failure to respond to the infant's life-threatening conditions by providing treatment (including appropriate nutrition, hydration, and medication) which, in the treating physician's or physicians' reasonable medical judgment, will be most likely to ...

Is there an ethical or legal difference between withholding and withdrawing medically assisted nutrition and hydration?

Although individuals may hold personal or professional reservations, withholding or withdrawing ANH is both legally and ethically permissible.

What is the difference between withholding treatment and euthanasia?

Withdrawal or withholding of treatment is a decision to allow a disease to follow its natural course, which may result in a patient's death. Euthanasia, on the other hand, is a conscious decision to take actions with the specific intent to end a patient's life.

What are examples of life-sustaining treatments?

Patients may consider many life-sustaining treatments; in addition to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), options include elective intubation, mechanical ventilation, surgery, dialysis, blood transfusions, artificial nutrition and hydration, diagnostic tests, antibiotics, other medications and treatments, as well as ...Oct 1, 2000

What can affect a person's decision to withhold or withdraw treatment?

If the person does not have capacity, their substitute decision-maker can, in some cases, decide to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment. The law on this depends on the guardianship and medical treatment legislation in each State and Territory.Jun 15, 2021

Is withholding medication a crime?

Deliberate negligence

This involves a caretaker or family member deliberately choosing not to provide medication to the elderly individual. Even if the first few times were accidental, refusing to correct the issue can lead to any potential criminal charges being upgraded from negligent to deliberate.
Jan 25, 2021

What are the life sustaining measures?

Examples of life sustaining measures include artificial nutrition and hydration, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and mechanical ventilation. Depending on the circumstances, dialysis treatments may also be considered life sustaining.

Which legally allows parents to withhold life sustaining treatment from a terminally ill child?

ADVANCE DIRECTIVES

Those two legal documents are 1) a living will or 2) the durable power of attorney.
Apr 2, 2004

Do patients have the right to refuse life sustaining treatment?

Under federal law, the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) guarantees the right to refuse life sustaining treatment at the end of life.Apr 16, 2015

Is there an ethical difference between withholding and withdrawing treatment?

While there may be an emotional difference between not initiating an intervention at all and discontinuing it later in the course of care, there is no ethical difference between withholding and withdrawing treatment.

Is it ethical to withhold life sustaining interventions?

Decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining interventions can be ethically and emotionally challenging to all involved. However, a patient who has decision-making capacity appropriate to the decision at hand has the right to decline any medical intervention or ask that an intervention be stopped, even when that decision is expected to lead ...

Can a patient decline medical intervention?

However, a patient who has decision-making capacity appropriate to the decision at hand has the right to decline any medical intervention or ask that an intervention be stopped, even when that decision is expected to lead to his or her death and regardless of whether or not the individual is terminally ill.

When should a physician elicit patient goals of care?

Physicians should elicit patient goals of care and preferences regarding life-sustaining interventions early in the course of care, including the patient’s surrogate in that discussion whenever possible.

Is there a difference between withholding and withdrawing LST?

The Equivalence Thesis holds that there is no moral ly relevant difference between withholding and withdrawing LST: wherever it is morally permissible to withhold LST, it is morally permissible to withdraw LST, and vice versa. Several prominent bioethicists hold the Equivalence Thesis to be true, including John Harris, ...

Is resource allocation a legitimate reason to withhold but not withdraw intensive care?

Resource allocation is considered by clinicians to be a legitimate reason to withhold but not to withdraw intensive care treatment. We analyse five arguments in favour of non-equivalence, and find only relatively weak reasons to restrict rationing to withholding treatment.

Is therapy initiated a claim to continue therapy?

Provided that there is a genuine need and that therapy is biomedically effective, the historical fact that therapy has been initiated entails a claim to continue therapy that cannot be attributed to patients who have not yet received therapy. This intrinsic difference between withholding and withdrawing therapy is of moral importance.

Is killing and letting die morally equivalent?

Proponents of the moral equivalence of killing and letting die argue that in cases of simple conflict, where one agent must either perform a positive act and kill one person, or not perform that act and allow another person to die, the agent's alternatives are clearly morally equivalent.

When to consider a trial of the intervention with withdrawal?

When the patient is stable or improving, and the intervention has a reasonable chance of reaching the patient's goals. When the risk/benefit ratio is unclear, or the evolution of the disease is uncertain. In this case, consider a trial of the intervention with withdrawal if little or no benefit accrues.

Is ventilator withdrawal euthanasia?

If the intent is to secure comfort, not death; if the medications are chosen for and titrated to the patient's symptoms; if the medications are not administered with the primary intent to cause death, then ventilator withdrawal and pain treatment are not euthanasia.

When delirium may be due to dehydration, what is the purpose of the term?

When delirium may be due to dehydration. To maintain life for a period, while the decision maker/family struggles with end-of-life decisions. When there is no clear decision maker, and the family cannot reach a consensus. When the quality of life is good, as defined by the patient.

Is euthanasia a decision to seek death?

No. There is a strong general consensus that withdrawal or withholding of treatment is a decision that allows the disease to progress on its natural course. It is not a decision to seek death and end life.Euthanasia actively seeks to end the patient's life.

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