Empirical data about medical end-of-life decision making practices are scarce. This research line aims to study frequency and characteristics of end-of-life decision-making in medical and nursing practice.
Medical decision-making for patients with life-threatening diseases increasingly involves a balanced consideration of medical, ethical, psychosocial and societal aspects. These considerations and the legal background in each country may modify end-of-life decision-making practices and attitudes of physicians, patients and other persons involved.
Medical end-of-life decisions in principle include the following types of decisions:
I. decisions about whether or not to withhold or withdraw potentially life-prolonging treatment, e.g. mechanical ventilation, tube-feeding, dialysis;
II. decisions about the alleviation of pain or other symptoms with, e.g., opioids, benzodiazepines or barbiturates in dosages large enough to hasten death as a possible or certain side effect;
III. decisions about euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, which can be defined as the administration, prescription or supply of drugs to end life at the patient's explicit request.
Medical end-of-life decisions may occur at any medical setting where patients die, that is, in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and at home.