Palliative Care Ethics: A Companion for All Specialties

by Fiona Randall, R. S. Downie

Palliative care is a rapidly growing area within health care and one in which there are many ethical dilemmas. Chronically and terminally ill patients increasingly wish to take control of their own lives and deaths, resources are scarce and technology has created controversial life-prolonging treatment. This book has been written by a clinician and a teacher and writer of health care ethics to provide all those who care for the terminally ill - doctors, nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, clergy and other careers - with the concepts and principles to assist them in difficult decisions. A central theme, that technical expertise must be controlled by humane, non-technical judgments, runs through the challenging and thoughtful text. Palliative Care Ethics, in this second edition, is now more user- friendly and includes genuine case histories to illustrate ethical issues in the real world. The authors have expanded the section on rationing in response to the changing health
care environment and confrontthe issues of patient rights to a far greater extent..There is also a new chapter covering terminally ill children. As the philosophy of palliation is increasingly recognised to be important from diagnosis, the coverage of more general cancer care ethics has been much increased. ' an excellent book' Palliative Medicine 'A thorough reference for practitioners of palliative care' toronto Medical Journal 'The authors tackle many delicate concerns with professional and human integrity' Journal of Medical Ethic

332 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 1999