MEDI7232 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Advance Healthcare Directive, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Health Professional
Document Summary
Issues types and/or doses of palliative drugs needed to relieve pain may hasten death: also creates link between act and death, hence some actions of palliative care may be law punishable. Fears about corresponding liability results in conservation palliation: relevance of the doctrine of double effect - s282a of criminal code, both good outcome (pain relief) and bad outcome (death) exist, only hold doctor liable for good outcome. In qld, provision of palliative care is governed by s282a. Cases case 1: terry has advanced pancreatic cancer and is not expected to live more than another week. He is in excruciating pain and the doctor on the ward administers a modest dose of morphine. This helps terry to cope with the pain initially, but after a da(cid:455), he sa(cid:455)s that he(cid:859)s i(cid:374) u(cid:374)(cid:271)eara(cid:271)le pai(cid:374). The do(cid:272)tor orders a higher dose, (cid:271)ut this is (cid:374)ot e(cid:454)pe(cid:272)ted to haste(cid:374) terr(cid:455)(cid:859)s death.
