Articles: palliative-care.
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Journal of health law · Jan 2001
Glucksberg, the putative right to adequate pain relief, and death with dignity.
This Article focuses on the legality of the aggressive use of analgesics and deep sedation for terminally ill patients. The author analyzes the 1997 Supreme Court decisions on physician-assisted suicide, examines the tension between controversial palliative care practices and the traditional legal framework, and explores the contours of an emerging constitutional right to avoid suffering at the end of life. In addition, the author argues that deep sedation together with withholding of artificial nutrition and hydration should be an option for dying patients suffering from severe physical or emotional pain.
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Cancer is the second leading cause of death among Americans. The World Health Organization has mandated an integrated approach to palliative care in the treatment of patients with cancer. However, medical decision making in the setting of life-threatening disease remains complicated. ⋯ If fully implemented, the integrated palliative care approach will result in quaternary prevention, ie, the prevention of suffering.
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Understanding why some terminally ill patients desire a hastened death has become an important issue in palliative care and the debate regarding legalization of assisted suicide. ⋯ Desire for hastened death among terminally ill cancer patients is not uncommon. Depression and hopelessness are the strongest predictors of desire for hastened death in this population and provide independent and unique contributions. Interventions addressing depression, hopelessness, and social support appear to be important aspects of adequate palliative care, particularly as it relates to desire for hastened death.