title: Withholding and withdrawing life support.
abstract: What does the physician do when health cannot be restored or suffering relieved? When the fundamental principles of biomedical ethics are used as guidelines for life support decisions, patients, their families, and the medical staff all benefit. These principles--beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice--are discussed in the context of legal precedents and clinical application.
authors.affiliation: Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Raffin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003657:Decision Making; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D009102:Multiple Organ Failure / Q000401:mortality; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011379:Prognosis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014481:United States