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Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Ethical issues in surgical palliative care: am I killing the patient by "letting him go"?
Timothy M Pawlik1, Steven A Curley
1Department of Surgical Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Unit 444, P.O. Box 301402, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030, USA. tmpawlik@mdanderson.org
Abstract:
Recent medical advances have complicated decisions regarding terminal care. Surgeons should be familiar with the ethical issues that contribute to end-of-life decision-making. Four clusters of ethical principles (autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice)are used commonly in ethical deliberations. Artificial ethical distinctions between withholding versus withdrawing care or ordinary versus extraordinary treatments can confuse clinical decision-making at the end of life. An ethics of death and dying requires that the intent and the action of the moral agent be considered.
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