Intended for healthcare professionals

  1. Education
  2. Withdrawing life...
  3. Withdrawing life support and resolution of conflict with families
Clinical Review

Withdrawing life support and resolution of conflict with families

BMJ 2002; 325 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7376.1342 (Published 07 December 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;325:1342

Data supplement

  • Additional references
    1. Keenan SP, Busche KD, Chen LM, Esmail R, Inman KJ, Sibbald WJ. Withdrawal and withholding of life support in the intensive care unit: A comparison of teaching and community hospitals. Crit Care Med 1998;26:245-51.
    2. Eidelman LA, Jakobson DJ, Pizov R, Geber D, Leibovitz L, Sprung CL. Foregoing life-sustaining treatment in an Israeli ICU. Intensive Care Med 1998;24:162-66.
    3. Faber-Langendoen K. A multi-institutional study of care given to patients dying in hospitals. Ethical practices and implications. Arch Intern Med 1996;156:2130-6.
    4. Esteban A, Gordo F, Solsona JF, Alia I, Caballero J, Alcala-Zamora J, et al. Withdrawing and wihtholding life support in the intensive care unit: a Spanish prospective multi-centre observational study. Intensive Care Med 2001;27:1744-9.
    5. Asch DA, Christakis NA. Why do physicians prefer to withdraw some forms of life support over others? Intrinsic attributes of life-sustaining treatments are associated with physicians’ preferences. Med Care 1996;34:103-11.
    6. Faber-Langendoen K. The clinical management of dying patients receiving mechanical ventilation. A survey of physician practice. Chest 1994;106:880-8.
    7. Sulmasy DP, Terry PB, Weisman CS, Miller DJ, Stallings RY, Tettese MA, et al. The accuracy of substituted judgment in patients with terminal diagnoses. Ann Intern Med 1998;128:621-9.
    8. Uhlmann RA, Pearlman RA, Cain KC. Understanding of elderly patients’ resuscitation preferences by physicians and nurses. West J Med 1989;150:705-7.
    9. Schneiderman LJ, Kaplan RM, Pearlman RA, Teetzel H, et al. Do physicians’ own preferences for life-sustaining treatment influence their perceptions of patients’ preferences? J Clin Ethics 1993;4:28-33.
    10. Abbott KH, Sago JG, Breen CM, Abernethy AP, Tulsky JA. Families looking back: one year after discussion of withdrawal or withholding of life-sustaining support. Crit Care Med 2001;29:197-201.
    11. Truog RD, Brett AS, Frader J. The problem with futility. N Engl J Med 1992;326:1560-4.
    12. Goold SD, Williams BC, Arnold RM. Handling conflict in end-of-life care. JAMA 2000;283:909-14.
    13. Schneiderman LJ, Jecker NS, Jonsen AR. Medical futility: response to critiques. Ann Intern Med 1996;125:669-74.
    14. Lantos JD, Singer PA, Walker RM, Gramelspacher GP, Shapiro GR, Sanchez-Gonzalez MA, et al. The illusion of futility in clinical practice. Am J Med 1989;87:81-4.
    15. Luce JM. Making decisions about the forgoing of life-sustaining therapy. Am J Resp Crit Care Med 1997;156:1715-8.
    16. Molter NC. Needs of relatives of critically ill patients: a descriptive study. Heart Lung 1979;8:332-9.
    17. Ethics Committee of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. Consensus statement of the Society of Critical Care Medicine ethics committee regarding futile and other possibly inadvisable treatments. Critical Care Medicine 1997;25:887-91.
    18. Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs of the American Medical Association. Principles of medical ethics. Chicago: AMA, 1989.
    19. Solomon M, O’Donnell L, Jennings B, Guilfoy V, Wolf SM, Nolan K, Jackson R, et al.Decisions near the end of life: professionals views on life-sustaining treatments. Am J Public Health 1993;83:14-23.
    20. Campbell ML, Carleson RW. Terminal weaning from mechanical ventilation: Ethical and practical considerations for patient management. Am J Crit Care 1992;1:152-6.
    21. Somogyi-Zalud E, Zhong Z, Lynn J, Dawson NV, Hamel MB, Desbiens NA. Dying with acute respiratory failure or multiple organ system failure with sepsis. J Am Geriatr Soc 2000;48:S140-5.
    22. Truog RD, Berde CB, Mitchell C, Grier HE. Barbiturates in the care of the terminally ill. N Engl J Med 1992;327:1678-82.
    23. Daly BJ, Thomas D, Dyer MA. Procedures used in the withdrawal of mechanical ventilation. Am J Crit Care 1996;5:331-8.
    24. Brody H, Campbell ML, Faber-Langendoen K, Ogle KS. Withdrawing intensive life-sustaining treatment: recommendations for compassionate clinical management. N Engl J Med 1997;336:652-7.
    25. Truog RD, Burns JP, Mitchell C, Johnson J, Robinson W. Pharmacologic paralysis and withdrawal of mechanical ventilation at the end of life. N Engl J Med 2000;342:508-11.
    26. Rushton CH, Terry PB. Neuromuscular blockade and ventilator withdrawal: Ethical controversies. Am J Crit Care 1995;4:112-5.
    27. Kirkland L. Neuromuscular paralysis and withdrawal of mechanical ventilation. J Clin Ethics 1994;5:38-9.

     

Related articles

Cited by...

  • Participation of French general practitioners in end-of-life decisions for their hospitalised patients
  • Clinical ethics, information, and communication: review of 31 cases from a clinical ethics committee
  • How physicians face ethical difficulties: a qualitative analysis
  • Intensivists are becoming gatekeepers to intensive care
Back to top