RT Book, Section
A1 Lowenstein, Edward
A2 Warfield, Carol A.
A2 Bajwa, Zahid H.
SR Print(0)
ID 3423267
T1 Chapter 86. End-of-Life Ethics
T2 Principles & Practice of Pain Medicine, 2e
YR 2004
FD 2004
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071443494
LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=3423267
RD 2024/04/23
AB Why  is  a  chapter  on  end-of-life  ethics  included  in  a  textbook  of  pain  treatment?  After  all,  this  topic  was  not  included  in  the  previous  edition.  There  are  at  least  two  major  reasons:  first,  pain  is  common  at  end  of  life;  second,  many  have  contended  that  most  suffering  at  end  of  life  is  due  to  pain,  and  that  most  requests  for  assistance  in  dying  or  hastening  death  would  disappear  if  adequate  pain  relief  were  provided.  Both  these  reasons  raise  many  ethical  issues.  The  emerging  field  of  biomedical  ethics  is  influencing  the  approach  to  pain  treatment  and  to  dying.  This  brief  essay  will  be  confined  to  familiarizing  the  reader  with  specific,  limited  ethical  aspects  regarding  the  present  status  of  pain  treatment  and  some  ethical  considerations  having  an  impact  on  end-of-life  care.