Chakravarty Abhijit, Kapoor Pawan
Department of Hospital Administration, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India.
Indian J Med Ethics. 2012 Jul-Sep;9(3):202-6. doi: 10.20529/IJME.2012.066.
Debates in India on end-of-life care assumed a new life after the petition in the Supreme Court in the case of Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug, calling for withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy from a patient in a persistent vegetative state. The Court's landmark decision has led the way for discussing and developing guidelines on various situations in end-of- life care. This paper discusses some key concepts in end-of-life care - medical futility, palliative care, advance directives, surrogate decision making, physician assisted suicide and euthanasia - with reference to the guidelines of various medical associations and decisions in Indian courts.
在最高法院受理阿鲁纳·拉姆钱德拉·珊波的案件请愿后，印度关于临终关怀的辩论呈现出了新的态势。该请愿呼吁停止对处于持续植物人状态的患者进行维持生命的治疗。法院具有里程碑意义的裁决为讨论和制定临终关怀各种情形的指导方针开辟了道路。本文参照各医学协会的指导方针以及印度法院的裁决，探讨了临终关怀中的一些关键概念——医疗无效、姑息治疗、预立医嘱、替代决策、医生协助自杀和安乐死。
