Main description:

No specialty faces more diverse and challenging ethical dilemmas than palliative medicine. What is the best way to plan ahead for the end of life? How should physicians respond when patients refuse treatments likely to be beneficial, or demand treatments not likely to be? Who makes medical decisions for patients who are too ill to decide for themselves? Do patients have the "right to die" (and, if so, what exactly does that mean)?

In this volume noted palliative care physician and bioethicist Robert C. Macauley addresses a broad range of issues from historical, legal, clinical, and ethical perspectives. Clinically nuanced and philosophically rigorous, Ethics in Palliative Care analyzes hot-button subjects like physician assisted dying and euthanasia, as well as often overlooked topics such as pediatric palliative care, organ donation, palliative care research, and moral distress. Drawing on real cases yet
written in non-technical language, this complete guide will appeal to both medical professionals and lay readers.

Contents:

Preface

Section I: Overview and introduction
Chapter 1: Ethics and palliative care
Chapter 2: Overview of ethical approaches

Section II: Ethical issues in determining the plan of care
Chapter 3: Advance care planning and surrogate decision making
Chapter 4: Specific ethical issues at the end of life

Section III: Death and dying
Chapter 5: The "right to die"
Chapter 6: Forgoing life-sustaining medical treatment
Chapter 7: Pain and symptom management at the end of life
Chapter 8: Physician Assisted Dying
Chapter 9: Palliative sedation

Section IV: Pediatric ethics and palliative care
Chapter 10: Overview of pediatric ethics and palliative care
Chapter 11: Ethics of prenatal palliative care
Chapter 12: Ethics of neonatal palliative care
Chapter 13: Ethics of child and adolescent palliative care

Section V: Other topics
Chapter 14: Requests for non-beneficial treatment
Chapter 15: Neuro-palliative care
Chapter 16: Death and organ donation
Chapter 17: Research in palliative care
Chapter 18: Clinical practice of palliative care
Chapter 19: Final thoughts

Frequently used abbreviations
Glossary