Are advance directives legally binding or simply the starting point for discussion on patients’ best interests? Ethical view

In presenting the ethical dilemma in this excellent ethical debate
article Stephen Bonner and colleagues state: "Staff were anxious that
failure to administer potentially life saving treatment might constitute
assisted suicide." Surely, this is not the case either ethically or
legally, the patient having initiated the suicidal act apparantly without
any assistance and certainly not with the assistance of those healthcare
professionals involved in her subsequent management. There is a world of
difference between helping to initiate suicide compared with not
intervening after the event. This is a common concern of nurses and
doctors and our own clinical ethics committee has heard the same concerns
expressed. I feel that it should have been clarified in the legal and
ethical commentaries.

Competing interests:
Chair of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Clinical Ethics Committee