Ethical issues in aging and renal disease.
The incidence of elderly patients reaching end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and requiring renal replacement is increasing. Better medical care is helping patients live longer but, at the same time, is raising ethical questions. Treatment decisions for ESRD patients present a forum for the consideration of ethical questions surrounding the issues of scarce health care resource allocation and the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. As background for the consideration of ethical issues in ESRD patients, the quality of life they experience and what they may expect as death approaches also are discussed.
Lew
S Q
SQ
Department of Medicine, and The Center to Improve Care of the Dying, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
Cohn
F
F
Cohen
L M
LM
Kimmel
P L
PL
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D015276:Health Care Rationing; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D008020:Life Support Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D017582:Renal Replacement Therapy