February 07, 2012
aggressive palliative care?
Category: Palliative Care
Is it ethically acceptable to provide aggressive palliative care that is likely or even certain to hasten a patient’s death? What ethical ideas inform your perspective on this issue?
2 Responses to “aggressive palliative care?”
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February 7th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
“Hasten” ? Do you mean euthanize ? Or do you mean that their health will deteriorate ? You shouldn’t actively accelerate death but if that is an unintentional side effect of receiving palliative medicines – if there are no other medicines without that side effect – it seems excusable.
February 7th, 2012 at 12:55 pm
The Patient should be kept ‘pain free’ and that will depend on how much pain their are in and how much pain killer they are given, so it is a balancing act. However, when my times comes I shall be screaming in pain persistently, in hope of a peaceful death. Best of Luck