Journal article
Is withdrawing treatment really more problematic than withholding treatment?
- Abstract:
- There is a concern that as a result of COVID-19 there will be a shortage of ventilators for patients requiring respiratory support. This concern has resulted in significant debate about whether it is appropriate to withdraw ventilation from one patient in order to provide it to another patient who may benefit more. The current advice available to doctors appears to be inconsistent, with some suggesting withdrawal of treatment is more serious than withholding, while others suggest that this distinction should not be made. We argue that there is no ethically relevant difference between withdrawing and withholding treatment and that suggesting otherwise may have problematic consequences. If doctors are discouraged from withdrawing treatment, concern about a future shortage may make them reluctant to provide ventilation to patients who are unlikely to have a successful outcome. This may result in underutilisation of available resources. A national policy is urgently required to provide doctors with guidance about how patients should be prioritised to ensure the maximum benefit is derived from limited resources.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 195.1KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1136/medethics-2020-106330
Authors
- Publisher:
- BMJ
- Journal:
- Journal of Medical Ethics More from this journal
- Volume:
- 47
- Issue:
- 11
- Pages:
- 722-726
- Publication date:
- 2020-05-25
- Acceptance date:
- 2020-05-04
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1473-4257
- ISSN:
-
0306-6800
- Pmid:
-
32451343
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Cameron et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2020
- Rights statement:
- © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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