End-of-life ethical considerations

When someone faces a life-limiting illness, together with their families and caregivers they need to consider a wide range of ethical and legal issues. Left unattended, this may result in complex treatment decision-making, influence the care provided, and create tensions between people with life-limiting illnesses, their families/caregivers, and perhaps the healthcare system. They may wish to discuss potential ethical issues with those they love and their medical team before issues arise.

In end-of-life, people receiving care, those they love, and health professionals are faced with some key considerations such as:

• artificial nutrition and hydration;
• conversations about imminent death;
• dying assistance requests;
• palliative sedation;
• withdrawal of medically-futile treatment; and
• autopsy requests.

For your information, the general principles which guide your medical team are:

• beneficence: doing good;
• justice;
• non-maleficence: doing no harm; and
• respect for autonomy: the person’s right to self-determination.