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Withdrawing and withholding life-sustaining treatment
1Department of Neurology and Center for Bioethics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Abstract:
The ethics of decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining therapies are reviewed. Special attention is paid to the ethical and moral distinctions - or lack thereof - between withholding and withdrawing. The ethical principles informing decisions to forgo life-sustaining therapy are covered, along with the difficulty of making such decisions in the face of prognostic uncertainty. Specific advice is provided regarding the decision-making process, and recent literature regarding decision-making in the neurologic intensive care unit is reviewed.
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