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Withholding and Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatment: Ethically Equivalent?
1a Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
The American Journal of Bioethics : AJOB
|March 22, 2019
Summary
Withholding and withdrawing medical treatment are not ethically equivalent, contrary to common medical guidelines. Nuanced discussions are needed, rather than moral education, to address the perceived differences in medical ethics.
Area of Science:
- Medical Ethics
- Bioethics
- Clinical Decision-Making
Background:
- Medical guidelines and ethics literature widely consider withholding and withdrawing treatment as ethically equivalent.
- Healthcare professionals often perceive significant moral distinctions between these two actions.
- Proponents of equivalence attribute perceived differences to cognitive biases and flawed reasoning, advocating for moral education to align professional judgment with ethical equivalence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To critically examine the ethical equivalence of withholding and withdrawing medical treatment.
- To challenge the prevailing view of ethical equivalence in medical ethics and policy.
- To advocate for a more nuanced approach to discussions surrounding treatment cessation.
Main Methods:
- Philosophical analysis of the moral relationship between withholding and withdrawing treatment.
- Critical review of existing ethical arguments supporting equivalence.
- Examination of the basis for perceived moral differences among healthcare professionals.
Main Results:
- The study concludes that withholding and withdrawing treatment are not, in general, ethically equivalent.
- Perceived moral differences are not solely attributable to cognitive biases but may reflect valid ethical distinctions.
- Current ethical frameworks may oversimplify complex clinical and moral judgments.
Conclusions:
- Medical guidelines should be revised to reflect the ethical non-equivalence of withholding and withdrawing treatment.
- Moral education aimed at enforcing equivalence is inappropriate; instead, nuanced medico-ethical discussions are necessary.
- Healthcare professionals and patients should engage in deeper ethical deliberation regarding treatment decisions.
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