Abstract
During the last decade, several court cases have focused attention on the moral and legal aspects of withholding or withdrawing food and fluids from certain patients. The courts have not been unanimous in their judgments on these matters. In attempting to explore this issue, this article reviews both the nursing and medical literature on the withdrawing and withholding of food and fluids with particular attention to empirical studies. Several themes which emerge from the literature are used to explore the similarities and differences between the practices of nursing and medicine where nutritional support is concerned.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 259-283 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Journal of Medicine and Philosophy (United Kingdom) |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 1991 |
Keywords
- Medical practice
- Nursing ethics
- Nursing practice
- Withholding/withdrawing food and fluids