Abstract
Clinicians often decide either to withhold or to withdraw lifesaving treatment in elderly patients. Considerable disagreement exists about the circumstances in which such actions can be defended. Debates about the scarcity of resources in the NHS add urgency to the need to resolve this disagreement. Competent elderly patients have a legal and moral right to decide whether to receive life sustaining treatment. Such treatment should not be withheld or withdrawn on the basis of a patient's age alone. Principles for making decisions about life sustaining treatment in incompetent elderly patients can be defended and should exist as written guidelines.
Full text
PDF
Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Doyal L., Wilsher D. Withholding cardiopulmonary resuscitation: proposals for formal guidelines. BMJ. 1993 Jun 12;306(6892):1593–1596. doi: 10.1136/bmj.306.6892.1593. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Eiser C., Havermans T. Long term social adjustment after treatment for childhood cancer. Arch Dis Child. 1994 Jan;70(1):66–70. doi: 10.1136/adc.70.1.66. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kontos H. A. Validity of cerebral arterial blood flow calculations from velocity measurements. Stroke. 1989 Jan;20(1):1–3. doi: 10.1161/01.str.20.1.1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Volicer L., Rheaume Y., Brown J., Fabiszewski K., Brady R. Hospice approach to the treatment of patients with advanced dementia of the Alzheimer type. JAMA. 1986 Oct 24;256(16):2210–2213. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Williams F. Medical futility in context. 1993 Jun 16-Jul 13Br J Hosp Med. 50(1):50–53. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]