A Typical Perplexing Life-sustaining Therapy Decision at the End of life: A Case Report from Sri Lanka with Attributes Potentially worth Adopting from the UK Legislature

Abstract

In many developing parts of the world, evidence on advance care planning (ACP) is either lacking or fragmented. Lack of streamlined means for ACP is known to lead to inconveniences for the clinicians as well as the patients and their families. This case report focuses on a young male diagnosed with metastatic osteosarcoma, who explicitly verbalised his wishes to be managed conservatively without involving invasive life-sustaining measures. However, the patient faced cardiopulmonary resuscitation before his demise against his wishes, which also contradicted with the medical point of view. Sri Lankan doctors face moral, ethical and legal dilemmas as they deal with terminally ill patients at the verge of their death due to the deficiencies in the medical and legislative frameworks in the country.