Ethische Aspekte in der Therapie am Lebensende

Abstract

Therapy decisions in the care of critically ill and dying patients in intensive care and emergency medicine must reflect probably conflicting issues of medical indications, ethics and law. This is of particular relevance when treatment preferences of patients are not known or are in contrast to those of the carers. Difficulties regarding prognostication or with determining the beginning of an irreversible dying process may also lead to treatment situations that need ethical reflection. It is recommended to tackle medico-ethical issues by discussion of the meaning of relevant terms and medico-ethical principles, analyzing the professional self-image in intensive care and emergency medicine, consideration of options of palliative medicine and by use of an ethics case consultation.

Cancer care near the end‐of‐life in Austria: A retrospective data analysis

“…Internationally EOL care is considered as an important indicator for the quality of oncological care (Choosing Wisely in cooperation with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2016; Devos et al 2019;Nauck 2011;Patera & Wild 2012;Wild & Patera 2011). Hence we aimed to investigate the EOL care of cancer patients across Austria as well as the assessment of potential regional variances between all nine federal states.…”