Palliative Care Ethics

The expertise of palliative care has recently been extended from the hospice to all areas of medicine. This study examines the ethical problems raised by palliative care. It also challenges some of the accepted doctrines and standard procedures for dealing with the terminally ill.

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Palliative Care is a recent branch of health care. Although it took its inspiration from the medieval idea of the hospice, palliative care has entended its range to every area of health care: GP's surgeries, nursing homes, acute wards, and the community. This has happened during a period when patients wish to take more control over their own lives and deaths, resources have become scarce, and technology has created controversial life-prolonging treatments. Palliative care is therefore faced with more ethical problems than other areas of health care. This book, by a clinician and a teacher and writer on health care ethics, has been written to proivde all thsoe who care for the terminally ill - doctors, nurses, social workers, clergymen, physiotherapists - with the concepts and principals which will assist them with difficult decisions. It challenges many received doctrines of palliative care, but its well-illustrated central theme is that technical expertise must be controlled by humane, non-technical judgements. This book is intended for those studying palliative care (component in most medical courses). Nurses in palliative care. Social workers, practising and studying.
Postgraduate nurses and doctors with an interest in palliative care. Oncologists, radiotherapists, GPs, community nurses.