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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/72526
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Type: | Journal article |
Title: | The window of opportunity for treatment withdrawal |
Author: | Wilkinson, D. |
Citation: | JAMA Pediatrics, 2011; 165(3):211-215 |
Publisher: | Amer Medical Assoc |
Issue Date: | 2011 |
ISSN: | 1072-4710 1538-3628 |
Statement of Responsibility: | Dominic Wilkinson |
Abstract: | Physicians sometimes refer to a “window of opportunity” for withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in patients with acute severe brain injury. There is a period of critical illness and physiological instability when treatment withdrawal is likely to be followed by death but prognosis is uncertain. If decisions are delayed, greater prognostic certainty can be achieved, but with the risk that the patient is no longer dependent on life support and survives with very severe disability. In this article I draw on the example of birth asphyxia and highlight the role that the window of opportunity sometimes plays in decisions about life-sustaining treatment in intensive care. I outline the potential arguments in favor of and against taking the window into account. I argue that it is, at least sometimes, ethical and appropriate for physicians and parents to be influenced by the window of opportunity in their decisions about life-sustaining treatment. |
Keywords: | Humans Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain Prognosis Respiration, Artificial Critical Care Withholding Treatment Uncertainty Parents Decision Making Quality of Life Infant, Newborn Double Effect Principle |
Rights: | ©2011 American Medical Association. |
DOI: | 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.4 |
Published version: | http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com.proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/article.aspx?articleid=384389#Abstract |
Appears in Collections: | Aurora harvest Obstetrics and Gynaecology publications |
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