ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND CHALLENGE: Injuries, especially traumatic brain injury, or specific illnesses and their respective sequelae can result in the demise of the patients afflicted despite all efforts of modern intensive care medicine. If in principle organ donation is an option after a patient's death, intensive therapeutic measures are regularly required in order to maintain the homeostasis of the organs. These measures, however, cannot benefit the patient afflicted anymore-which in turn might lead to an ethical conflict between dignified palliative care for him/her and expanded intensive treatment to facilitate organ donation for others, especially if the patient has opted for the limitation of life-sustaining therapies in an advance directive. METHOD: The Ethics Section and the Organ Donation and Transplantation Section of the German Interdisciplinary Association of Critical Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) have convened several meetings and a telephone conference and have arrived at a decision-making aid as to the extent of treatment for potential organ donors. This instrument focusses first on the assessment of five individual dimensions regarding organ donation, namely the certitude of a complete and irreversible loss of all brain function, the patient's wishes as to organ donation, his or her wishes as to limiting life-sustaining therapies, the intensity of expanded intensive treatment for organ protection and the odds of its successful attainment. Then, the combination of the individual assessments, as graphically shown in a {Netzdiagramm}, will allow for a judgement as to whether a continuation or possibly an expansion of intensive care measures is ethically justified, questionable or even inappropriate. RESULT: The aid described can help mitigate ethical conflicts as to the extent of intensive care treatment for moribund patients, when organ donation is a medically sound option. NOTE: Gerald Neitzke und Annette Rogge contributed equally to this paper and should be considered co-first authors.
Subject(s)
Decision Making , Emergency Medicine , Organ Transplantation , Tissue and Organ Procurement , Critical Care , Humans , Organ Transplantation/ethics , Tissue Donors , Tissue and Organ Procurement/ethicsABSTRACT
The Ethics Section of the German Interdisciplinary Association of Critical Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) recently published a documentation for decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining therapies. The wish to donate organs was not considered explicitly. Therefore the Ethics Section and the Organ Donation and Transplantation Section of the DIVI together with the Ethics Section of the German Society of Medical Intensive Care Medicine and Emergency Medicine worked out a supplementary footnote for the documentation form to address the individual case of a patient's wish to donate organs.
Subject(s)
Critical Care , Emergency Medicine , Medical Overuse , Critical Care/statistics & numerical data , Germany , HumansSubject(s)
Critical Care , Decision Making , Emergency Medicine , Withholding Treatment , Documentation , HumansABSTRACT
Dealing systematically with ethical issues in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) care requires an unbiased awareness of all the relevant ethical issues. The aim of the study was to determine systematically and transparently the full spectrum of ethical issues in ALS care. We conducted a systematic review in Medline and Google Books (restricted to English and German literature published between 1993 and 2014). We applied qualitative text analysis and normative analysis to categorise the spectrum of ethical issues in ALS care. The literature review retrieved 56 references that together mentioned a spectrum of 103 ethical issues in ALS care. The spectrum was structured into six major categories that consist of first and second-order categories of ethical issues. The systematically derived spectrum of ethical issues in ALS care presented in this paper raises awareness and understanding of the complexity of ethical issues in ALS care. It also offers a basis for the systematic development of informational and training materials for health professionals, patients and their relatives, and society as a whole. Finally, it supports a rational and fair selection of all those ethical issues that should be addressed in health policies, position papers and clinical practice guidelines. Further research is needed to identify ways to systematically select the most relevant ethical issues not only in the clinical environment, but also for the development of clinical practice guidelines.
Subject(s)
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis , Ethics, Medical , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
The medical indication provides a rational foundation for treatment decisions. An indication can be defined as the reasonable professional judgement that a medical procedure is suitable and useful to reach a specific therapeutic goal with a certain probability. An indication includes empirical, causal and purposive considerations and justifications, and a scrutiny of the individual case. This ensures that medical aspects of the patient, therapeutic goals and evidence-based knowledge are integrated and represented in the indication. An indication justifies a treatment proposal to the patient, which may only be carried out after a procedure of informed consent. Indications can be considered as the ethical basis of treatment decisions and as the heart of professionalism: indications should be used as a professional tool to protect against irrational therapeutic expectations, while ensuring the patient's right for reasonable treatment. In health care that is increasingly shaped by economic constraints, conscientious indications ensure the professional and ethical basis of medical treatment decisions.
Subject(s)
Clinical Competence , Critical Care/ethics , Decision Theory , Ethics, Medical , Evidence-Based Medicine/ethics , Informed Consent/ethics , Decision Support Techniques , Germany , Humans , MalpracticeABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Healthcare is increasingly influenced by economical constraints which can lead to ethical conflicts for surgeons. The aim of the study was to investigate the incidence of these conflicts and the coping strategies of surgeons. METHODS: A prospective, standardized staff survey in an academic pediatric surgical department was performed over a period of 4 weeks. The types of conflict and solution strategies were determined. The agreement with given statements was determined using a 5-point Likert scale. RESULTS: In 155 returned questionnaires 74 ethical conflicts were identified. Most conflicts concerned decisions relating to diagnosis-related groups (DRG) which were economically based. To resolve the ethical conflict surgeons decided to the detriment of patients in 73 % and to the economical benefit in 72 %. In 8 % a medical disadvantage for the patient was noted and in 62 % a disadvantage for patient comfort was seen. Surgeons were highly dissatisfied with the conflict solutions (2.3/5). CONCLUSIONS: Economical considerations cause ethical conflicts in the daily routine in pediatric surgery. Decisions are made to the benefit of the hospital and cause a decrease in patient comfort. Political solutions for this problem are required in the interest of all those involved.
Subject(s)
Ethics, Medical , National Health Programs/economics , National Health Programs/ethics , Negotiating , Pediatrics/economics , Pediatrics/ethics , Surgical Procedures, Operative/economics , Surgical Procedures, Operative/ethics , Academic Medical Centers , Attitude of Health Personnel , Child , Data Collection , Diagnosis-Related Groups/economics , Diagnosis-Related Groups/ethics , Germany , Humans , Insurance Coverage/economics , Insurance Coverage/ethics , Medical Staff, Hospital , Patient Satisfaction , Prospective Studies , Quality of Life , Surgery Department, Hospital/ethics , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
The task of physicians is to maintain life, to protect and re-establish health as well as to alleviate suffering and to accompany the dying until death, under consideration of the self-determination rights of patients. Increasingly more and differentiated options for this are becoming available in intensive care medicine. Within the framework of professional responsibility physicians must decide which of the available treatment options are indicated. This process of decision-making is determined by answering the following question: when and under which circumstances is induction or continuation of intensive care treatment justified? In addition to the indications, the advance directive of the patient is the deciding factor. Medical indications represent a scientifically based estimation that a therapeutic measure is suitable in order to achieve a defined therapy target with a given probability. The ascertainment of the patient directive is achieved in a graded process depending on the state of consciousness of the patient. The present article offers orientation assistance to physicians for these decisions which are an individual responsibility.
Subject(s)
Critical Care/ethics , Case Management/ethics , Case Management/standards , Critical Care/standards , Emergency Medicine , Germany , Humans , Interdisciplinary Communication , Physician's Role , PhysiciansABSTRACT
Hemorrhage is frequently seen during the early phases of polytrauma management and intensive care treatment of the severely injured. Traumatic coagulopathy as well as the sometimes overlooked hyperfibrinolysis may lead to further complications. Therefore, transfusion of blood products and coagulation factors is often crucial. Jehova's Witnesses reject transfusions of blood and blood products due to religious convictions. In this case report a therapeutic approach of a multiple trauma patient suffering from traumatic brain injury, blunt chest trauma and liver laceration is described, who has been treated without blood products. As one main focus, ethical as well as legal aspects are discussed. Beside therapeutic concepts, such as the administration of coagulation factors, recombinant erythropoietin and iron, ethical and legal aspects remain part of the controversial discussion.
Subject(s)
Blood Transfusion , Brain Injuries/diagnosis , Hemorrhage/therapy , Jehovah's Witnesses , Liver/injuries , Lung Injury/diagnosis , Multiple Trauma/therapy , Religion and Medicine , Spleen/injuries , Algorithms , Blood Coagulation Factors/administration & dosage , Brain Injuries/surgery , Contraindications , Contusions/diagnosis , Contusions/therapy , Critical Care/methods , Erythropoietin/administration & dosage , Female , Hemorrhage/diagnosis , Hemostatic Techniques , Humans , Multiple Trauma/diagnosis , Rupture , Tomography, X-Ray Computed , Trauma Centers , Ultrasonography , Young AdultABSTRACT
Living organ donation is a medically established and morally acceptable method of transplantation. According to German Transplantation Law, an expert review by a local "Commission on Living Donation" (Lebendspendekommission, LSK) is required before transplantation. The legal task of this review is to ensure a voluntary decision by the donor and to rule out illegal trading of organs. Results from a national survey among all LSKs show that the process of review and assessment varies considerably among German LSKs. Most of them carry out a compulsory hearing of every potential donor, but this is omitted by some LSKs in a number of cases. Only 60% of all LSKs feel confident to determine donors' free will and protect their self-determination. Only 33% claim to be able to recognise illegal trading of organs. The LSKs even disagree on the exact borderline between legal incentives and illegal commerce. An expansion of living donation by financial incentives, pool-donation or crossover donation is supported only by a minority of German LSKs. The article argues in favour of establishing national standards for the process of LSK-reviews in order to foster procedural ethics and trustworthiness in the field of living organ donation.
Subject(s)
Ethics Committees/organization & administration , Ethics, Medical , Living Donors/ethics , Organ Transplantation/ethics , Data Collection , Expert Testimony/ethics , Expert Testimony/legislation & jurisprudence , Germany , Humans , Living Donors/legislation & jurisprudence , Organ Transplantation/legislation & jurisprudenceABSTRACT
A global or universal code of medical ethics seems paradoxical in the era of pluralism and postmodernism. A different conception of globalisation will be developed in terms of a "procedural universality". According to this philosophical concept, a code of medical ethics does not oblige physicians to accept certain specific, preset, universal values and rules. It rather obliges every culture and society to start a culture-sensitive, continuous, and active discourse on specific issues, mentioned in the codex. This procedure might result in regional, intra-cultural consensus, which should be presented to an inter-cultural dialogue. To exemplify this procedure, current topics of medical ethics (spiritual foundations of medicine, autonomy, definitions concerning life and death, physicians' duties, conduct within therapeutic teams) will be discussed from the point of view of western medicine.
Subject(s)
Cross-Cultural Comparison , Ethics, Medical , Global Health , Humans , Informed Consent/legislation & jurisprudence , Morals , Patient Advocacy/legislation & jurisprudence , Philosophy, MedicalSubject(s)
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/history , Hypoglycemic Agents/history , Insulin/history , Animals , Canada , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/drug therapy , Endocrinology/history , Germany , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Hypoglycemic Agents/therapeutic use , Insulin/therapeutic use , Nobel Prize , Periodicals as Topic/historyABSTRACT
Teaching medical ethics to medical students requires a mixture of the moral, legal, psychological and philosophical aspects of the subject. The experiences of a teaching programme at Hannover Medical School will be described. The didactic concepts derived from these experiences are given under five headings: Ethics education should take place continuously from the first year of medical school onward. Ethics teaching should progress from concrete cases to more abstract and theoretical considerations. Real cases are preferable to paper cases. Practising skills is as important as teaching knowledge. Participation is guaranteed by small-group-teaching. The concept is supported by data from the evaluation of the Hannover courses.
