Medical Ethics Assignment: End-of-Life Care and Patient Control

This assignment solution addresses key ethical considerations in end-of-life care, focusing on how patients can maintain control during this sensitive time. It examines the shift in healthcare goals from curative to supportive care and emphasizes the importance of open communication between doctors and patients regarding treatment decisions. The solution explores factors influencing decisions to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging treatment, emphasizing patient autonomy and the need for clear documentation. The assignment also references the BMA's Handbook of Ethics and Law to highlight the importance of compassion, honesty, and effective communication within the healthcare team. It underscores the need to respect patient wishes and provide support for both the patient and their loved ones during this difficult phase. The solution stresses the significance of ethical and legal considerations in end-of-life care to ensure patient dignity and privacy.

Running Head: HEALTHCARE 0
Medical Ethics
Ethics and Regulation in Healthcare
(student details :)
2/11/2019

Healthcare 1
Ethics and regulations in Healthcare
Solution
Patients must be assisted to uphold control over the end of their lives as it is the
crucial moments which requires enhanced attention and care from the emotional as well as
medical point of view (Eastwood, 2009). The end of lives stage is the phase where the
healthcare aims shift from curative to supportive health care. To help the patients during the
end of their lives for maintaining control, doctors should discuss each and every decision
related to the benefits or further active treatment so that the patients can be the prime
controller during the end of their lives (Thorns, 2010). Moreover, patients during their last
times of life must have opportunities to discuss the personal matters like where the patient
wants to die as well as with whom he or she wants to spend their end of life moments
(Thorns, 2010).
Solution
There are so many essential factors must be considered while determining whether to
withdraw or withhold life-prolonging treatment (Eastwood, 2009). The doctor can only be
justified while withdrawing or withholding an intervention that allows death to occur for a
patient in the following listed situations:
 When doctor respects and considers patients' independent decisions of withholding
consent for a life-preserving intervention.
 When doctor communicates the ills of any treatment outweigh a potential expansion
of patient’s life (Eastwood, 2009).
 Always the decision to withhold life-extending treatment must be documented inside
the subjected patients’ notes.

Healthcare 2
 If the patient is capable then he or she must be involved in decision-making for
withholding or withdrawing the hydration, treatment or nutrition (Thorns, 2010).
 Hence, a senior doctor should always talk to the patient about withdrawing any
treatment much before the real actions so that patients can express as well as add their
feelings into the decision-making about the same (Eastwood, 2009).
References
Eastwood, G. (2009). When relatives and friends ask physicians for medical advice: ethical,
legal, and practical considerations. Journal of general internal medicine, 24(12),
1333-1335.
Thorns, A. (2010). Ethical and legal issues in end-of-life care. Clinical Medicine, 10(3), 282-
285.