End-of-Life Decision-Making Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Nova Scotia Health Ethics Network

Category: End-of-Life Decision-Making

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26. Case: Withdrawal of Life-sustaining Treatment, or Euthanasia?

An ethics request came from nursing staff caring for a patient dying with end-stage throat cancer on acute surgical service. The patient has requested a removal of her tracheotomy and a chance to die as she chooses. She had agreed to try the trach for a while, but is finding it negatively impacts her quality…
View Case Study: 26. Case: Withdrawal of Life-sustaining Treatment, or Euthanasia?
25. Case: A Difference of Opinion?

Mary is a 90-year old woman who has been in hospital several weeks. She has a COPD exacerbation, increasing difficulty swallowing, and pneumonia. She has said repeatedly she is tired of being in hospital and tired of fighting to breathe. She doesn’t want a feeding tube or her IV but wants to be allowed to…
View Case Study: 25. Case: A Difference of Opinion?
24. Case: Changing Care and Care-Giving

Kevin Henderson is an 83-year old man who is hospitalized in an internal medicine clinical unit at the local hospital. Kevin has a variety of serious medical conditions including severe Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, coronary artery disease and advanced chronic obstructive lung disease. He is slowly recovering from a difficult-to-treat pneumonia, which required treatment with intravenous…
View Case Study: 24. Case: Changing Care and Care-Giving
23. Case: Reaching the Limits

Mr. Stanley, a divorced 55-year old journalist with a history of epilepsy, was admitted to the medical ICU after an unwitnessed (presumably prolonged) episode of status epilepticus at home. Investigations, including an MRI study, revealed that he had sustained watershed cortical infarcts and a diagnosis of severe anoxic encephalopathy was made. Mr. Stanley did not…
View Case Study: 23. Case: Reaching the Limits
22. Case: Double Effect?

The following call comes in to the ethics line: “Hi. It’s Celine from Oncology. We have a patient here who is in the end stages of lung cancer and is in a lot of pain. The patient and his family are strongly Catholic. The patient’s pain doesn’t seem to be well-controlled. But the family won’t…
View Case Study: 22. Case: Double Effect?
9. Case: Right to Treatment

A 54-year-old male patient has been treated for cancer for 2 years, but his illness has not responded to the major lines of treatment. He has been admitted to hospital with worsening nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and failure to thrive. A CT scan showed progression of disease as evidenced by new ascites along with…
View Case Study: 9. Case: Right to Treatment

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Case Repository

Category: End-of-Life Decision-Making

26. Case: Withdrawal of Life-sustaining Treatment, or Euthanasia?

25. Case: A Difference of Opinion?

24. Case: Changing Care and Care-Giving

23. Case: Reaching the Limits

22. Case: Double Effect?

9. Case: Right to Treatment

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