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Evaluating life-sustaining treatments for demented persons
1Section of General Internal Medicine, Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, Illinois.
Clinics in Geriatric Medicine
|November 1, 1988
Abstract:
Decisions to employ, withhold, or withdraw life-sustaining treatments from demented individuals should be centered on the patients' personal needs rather than on physiological abnormalities. To accomplish this, physicians and families need a trusting communication and flexible, comprehensive, and positive approaches to treatment goals and technologies. This article critiques and proposes approaches to such treatment planning.