• Med. J. Aust. · Nov 2014

    Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in a patient's best interests: Australian judicial deliberations.

    • Lindy Willmott, Ben White, Malcolm K Smith, and Dominic J C Wilkinson.
    • Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. l.willmott@qut.edu.au.
    • Med. J. Aust.. 2014 Nov 3;201(9):545-7.

    AbstractIntractable disputes about withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from adults who lack capacity are rare but challenging. Judicial resolution may be needed in some of these cases. A central concept for judicial (and clinical) decision making in this area is a patient's "best interests". Yet what this term means is contested. There is an emerging Supreme Court jurisprudence that sheds light on when life-sustaining treatment will, or will not, be judged to be in a patient's best interests. Treatment that is either futile or overly burdensome is not in a patient's best interests. Although courts will consider patient and family wishes, they have generally deferred to the views of medical practitioners about treatment decisions.

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