Palliative care and end-of-life decisions /
Smith, George Patrick,1939-
New York : Palgrave Macmillan,
2013
"George P. Smith's Palliative Care and End-of-Life Decisions completes a Bioethics-Health Care epistemology begun in 1989, which addresses the specific issue of managing palliative care at the end-stage of life. Smith argues forcefully that in order to palliate the whole person (encompassing physical and psychological states), an ethic of adjusted care requires recognition of a fundamental right to avoid cruel and unusual suffering from terminal illness. Specifically, this book urges wider consideration and use of terminal sedation as efficacious medical care and as a reasonable procedure in order to safeguard a 'right' to a dignified death. The principle of medical futility is seen as a proper construct for implementing this process. The state legislative responses of California, Vermont, and Washington in enacting Death with Dignity legislation - allowing those with end-stage terminal illness to receive pharmacological assistance in ending their own lives - is held by Smith to be not only commendable, but the proper response for enlightened state action."--Publisher
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Preface -- 1. Broadening The Boundaries of Palliative Medicine -- 2. Total Pain Management and Adjusted Care: An Evolving Ideal -- 3. Medical Futility: The Template for Decision-making -- 4. Reconstructing The Principle of Double Effect -- 5. Physician Assistance at Death or Euthanasia? -- 6. Shaping a Compassionate Response to End-Stage Illness -- 7. Toward a Good Death: A Socio-Legal, Ethical, and Medical Challenge -- Bibliography -- Index.
"George P. Smith's Palliative Care and End-of-Life Decisions completes a Bioethics-Health Care epistemology begun in 1989, which addresses the specific issue of managing palliative care at the end-stage of life. Smith argues forcefully that in order to palliate the whole person (encompassing physical and psychological states), an ethic of adjusted care requires recognition of a fundamental right to avoid cruel and unusual suffering from terminal illness. Specifically, this book urges wider consideration and use of terminal sedation as efficacious medical care and as a reasonable procedure in order to safeguard a 'right' to a dignified death. The principle of medical futility is seen as a proper construct for implementing this process. The state legislative responses of California, Vermont, and Washington in enacting Death with Dignity legislation - allowing those with end-stage terminal illness to receive pharmacological assistance in ending their own lives - is held by Smith to be not only commendable, but the proper response for enlightened state action."--Publisher
Terminal care
Terminally ill
Hospice care.
Hospitals
Palliative treatment