Author:
Baldassarri Stephen R.,Lee Ike,Latham Stephen R.,D'Onofrio Gail
Abstract
Physicians who care for critically ill people with opioid use disorder frequently face medical, legal, and ethical questions related to the provision of life-saving medical care. We examine a complex medical case that illustrates these challenges in a person with relapsing injection drug use. We focus on a specific question: Is futility an appropriate and useful standard by which to determine provision of life-saving care to such individuals? If so, how should such determinations be made? If not, what alternative decisionmaking framework exists? We determine that although futility has been historically utilized as a justification for withholding care in certain settings, it is not a useful standard to apply in cases involving people who use injection drugs for non-medical purposes. Instead, we are welladvised to explore each patient's situation in a holistic approach that includes the patient, family members, and care providers in the decision-making process. The scope of the problem illustrated demonstrates the urgent need to definitively improve outcomes in people who use injection drugs. Increasing access to high quality medication-assisted treatment and psychiatric care for individuals with opioid use disorder will help our patients achieve a sustained remission and allow us to reach this goal.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Health Policy,General Medicine,Issues, ethics and legal aspects
Reference40 articles.
1. Natural history of hepatitis C
2. Presentation, management, and follow-up evaluation of infective endocarditis in drug addicts
3. “Medical Futility Statutes: No Safe Harbor to Unilaterally Refuse Life-Sustaining Treatment,”;Pope;Tennessee Law Review,2007
4. “Prosthetic Valve Candida Spp. Endocarditis: New Insights into Long Term Prognosis - the ESCAPE Study,”;Rivoisy;Clinical Infectious Diseases,2017
5. 21. See Hull, supra note 5.
Cited by
6 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献