End of life decision-making on ethical and professional grounds - a critical analysis

Abstract

The decision-making process is a part of everyone's daily practice. One must make decisions and take positions based on the circumstances. It requires critical analysis of the situation and needs a lot of deliberation before reaching a certain conclusion, especially related to life and death issues. An autonomous decision is the capability of an individual to take their own decision. End-of-life decisions necessitate agreement among the patient, family, and health care team. It is very crucial for patients with chronic kidney disease because as the disease progress the chance of prognosis gets difficult. In developing countries, end of life decision making practice is underused or not in use, leaving many vulnerable to that edge where their personal preferences are not compatible with end of life care. Healthcare providers can play an important role by ensuring personal wishes by several means (Tremethick et al., 2011). In this paper, the author discusses the ethical dilemma faced by health care providers while on a clinical placement. This paper critically analyses the ethical dilemma related to autonomous decision-making on ethical and professional grounds.