Withholding and Withdrawal of Life Support from the Critically Ill

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In connection with the Special Article by Smedira and others (Feb. 1 issue)* on the withholding and withdrawal of life support from the critically ill, your readers may be interested to know that at this time of many rapid changes in health care, one of the most remarkable changes is that in the American people's attitudes toward these issues. For example: (1) the majority of Americans who believe that "a patient with a terminal disease ought to be able to tell his doctors to let him die when no cure is in sight" increased from 62 percent in 1973 to 85 percent in 1985. (2) The minority of 37 percent of Americans who believed in 1973 that "a patient who is terminally ill with no cure in sight ought to have the right to tell his doctors to put him out of his misery" had increased to a majority of 61 percent by 1985. (3) The minority who believed that if they "were too sick to make an important decision about their medical care they would want their doctors to make it" fell from 31 percent in 1982 to 22 percent in 1987 (when a majority of 64 percent wanted a family member to decide for them). (4) The majority who believed that "the law should allow doctors to honor the written instructions of their patients who are very ill with no hope of recovery, even if it means allowing them to die" increased from 68 percent in 1982 to 84 percent in 1987. (5) A 70 percent majority (in 1987) agreed with the statement that "if a child is born with very serious brain damage and will never have a normal life, its parents should be able to ask the doctor not to take any special steps, such as major surgery, to keep it alive."

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: