title: Withdrawing and withholding life-sustaining treatment.
abstract: The ethics of decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining therapies are reviewed. Special attention is paid to the ethical and moral distinctions - or lack thereof - between withholding and withdrawing. The ethical principles informing decisions to forgo life-sustaining therapy are covered, along with the difficulty of making such decisions in the face of prognostic uncertainty. Specific advice is provided regarding the decision-making process, and recent literature regarding decision-making in the neurologic intensive care unit is reviewed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Center for Bioethics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: TCOCHRANE@PARTNERS.ORG.
authors.forename: Thomas I
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Cochrane
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000941:ethics*
keywords: competence and capacity; decision-making; end-of-life; life-sustaining treatment; withholding and withdrawing