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Reframing Medical Appropriateness: A Case Study Concerning the Use of Life-Sustaining Technologies for a Patient With Profoundly Diminished Quality of Life.
- Source :
- Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics; Spring2017, Vol. 7 Issue 1, p87-95, 9p
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- This case study considers the clinical ethics issues of medical appropriateness and quality of life for patients who are critically ill. The case involves a terminally ill cancer patient with a profoundly diminished quality of life and an extremely poor prognosis; his spouse desires to bring him home, where she will arrange to keep him alive for as long as possible via life-sustaining interventions. The analysis engages with the complicated notion of medical appropriateness, both in general and as it pertains to life-sustaining interventions in a critical care setting, and considers the ethical implications of the various ways in which one might understand this concept. It also addresses the significance of quality-of-life determinations, emphasizing the role of individualized values in determining the importance of quality of life for clinical decision-making. The discussion concludes with a description of the two strategies employed by the ethics team in helping to alleviate the medical team's concerns about this case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- CANCER patients
QUALITY of life
MEDICAL technology
MEDICAL ethics
TERMINALLY ill
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 21571732
- Volume :
- 7
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 124589772
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1353/nib.2017.0021