Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the 1997 edition
- Acknowledgments
- About the authors
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- 1 Ethical principles for the medical profession
- 2 Ethical and legal responsibilities of medical students
- 3 Communication skills
- 4 Consent and informed decision making
- 5 Confidentiality, privacy and disclosure
- 6 Medical records, reports and certificates
- 7 Negligence, professional liability and adverse events
- 8 The regulation of the medical profession
- 9 Health care complaints systems
- 10 The doctor and sexual boundaries
- 11 Personal health of the doctor: illness and impairment
- 12 Maintenance of professional competence
- 13 Ethics and the allocation of health-care resources
- 14 The Australian health-care system
- 15 The doctor and interprofessional relationships
- 16 Entering and leaving practice and practice management
- 17 Clinical research
- 18 Prescribing and administering drugs
- 19 Diagnosing and certifying death and the role of the coroner
- 20 Births, reproductive technology, family law and child protection
- 21 Termination of pregnancy and related issues
- 22 Withholding or withdrawing treatment in the seriously or terminally ill
- 23 The law and the mentally ill
- 24 The law and courts of law in Australia
- 25 Medico-legal examinations and reports, court procedures and expert evidence
- 26 Other legislation relevant to medical practice
- APPENDIX 1 AMA CODE OF ETHICS – 2004
- Index
- References
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core
22 - Withholding or withdrawing treatment in the seriously or terminally ill
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the 1997 edition
- Acknowledgments
- About the authors
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- 1 Ethical principles for the medical profession
- 2 Ethical and legal responsibilities of medical students
- 3 Communication skills
- 4 Consent and informed decision making
- 5 Confidentiality, privacy and disclosure
- 6 Medical records, reports and certificates
- 7 Negligence, professional liability and adverse events
- 8 The regulation of the medical profession
- 9 Health care complaints systems
- 10 The doctor and sexual boundaries
- 11 Personal health of the doctor: illness and impairment
- 12 Maintenance of professional competence
- 13 Ethics and the allocation of health-care resources
- 14 The Australian health-care system
- 15 The doctor and interprofessional relationships
- 16 Entering and leaving practice and practice management
- 17 Clinical research
- 18 Prescribing and administering drugs
- 19 Diagnosing and certifying death and the role of the coroner
- 20 Births, reproductive technology, family law and child protection
- 21 Termination of pregnancy and related issues
- 22 Withholding or withdrawing treatment in the seriously or terminally ill
- 23 The law and the mentally ill
- 24 The law and courts of law in Australia
- 25 Medico-legal examinations and reports, court procedures and expert evidence
- 26 Other legislation relevant to medical practice
- APPENDIX 1 AMA CODE OF ETHICS – 2004
- Index
- References
Summary
The capacity to save lives through advances in treatments, especially the use of intensive care and life-support systems, is one of the ‘miracles of modern medicine’. However, these advances have created ethical and legal questions for the medical profession, legislators, the courts and the community. Some of these questions have been resolved by new legislation, for example the redefining of death to include brain death and the separate laws that give force to advance care directives. Other questions have been addressed by new ethical guidelines, for example in regard to the care of patients in post-coma unresponsiveness (previously known as the ‘vegetative state’). Further questions continue to confront the community, for example the ongoing debate about euthanasia. This chapter outlines the law and the professional and legal responsibilities of doctors in these areas, but does not enter into the wider social, ethical and philosophical debate surrounding euthanasia.
TREATMENT DECISIONS FOR NEWBORN INFANTS
Technological advances have created ethical dilemmas for parents and for doctors caring for extremely premature or severely malformed newborn infants [1–2]. In 1986 in F v F in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Mr Justice Vincent observed:
No parent, no doctor, no court, has any power to determine that the life of any child, however disabled that child may be, will be deliberately taken from it.
However, the law does recognise the responsibilities of parents, in conjunction with treating doctors, to decide whether medical intervention will commence or continue.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Good Medical PracticeProfessionalism, Ethics and Law, pp. 331 - 343Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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