title: End-of-life decision making across cultures.
abstract: Even more so than in other areas of medicine, issues at the end of life elucidate the importance of religion and culture, as well as the role of the family and other social structures, in how these issues are framed. This article presents an overview of the variation in end-of-life treatment issues across 12 highly disparate countries. It finds that many assumptions held in the western bioethics literature are not easily transferred to other cultural settings.
authors.affiliation: Political Science, University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Blank
mesh_terms: D016223:Advance Directives; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D003657:Decision Making; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D012067:Religion; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000941:ethics*; D014342:Truth Disclosure