Withholding and Withdrawing Potentially Life-Sustaining Treatment: Who Should Decide?

Authors

Jocelyn Downie, Dalhousie University Schulich School of LawFollow
Ben White, Northwestern UniversityFollow
Lindy Willmott
Eliana Close

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Keywords

Medical futility, withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment, end of life decision-making

Abstract

This chapter begins by considering the context in which disputes about life-sustaining treatment arise and the tensions and traumas they involve. Demographic and cultural shifts around how we die, evolving responses to the concept of ‘medical futility’ and difficulties in predicting death and in determining patient views and wishes all provide a context in which these decisions are made and disputes resolved. We then outline different possible regulatory responses to resolving these disputes before proposing a framework for how they should be regulated, based on values that we believe should be engaged when making decisions about potentially life-sustaining treatment.

Comments

Selected Works of Jocelyn Downie

Recommended Citation

Ben White, “Withholding and Withdrawing Potentially Life-Sustaining Treatment: Who Should Decide?” in Ian Freckelton & Kerry Petersen, eds, Tensions and Traumas in Health Law (Alexandria, Australia: Federation Press 2017).