Background Defensive medicine is defined as a doctor's deviation from standard practice to
reduce or prevent complaints or criticism. The objectives of this study were to assess the …

Patients who are in the last few days of life are often too frail to take oral fluids and nutrition.
This may be due entirely to the natural history of their disease, although the use of sedative …

Background An equivocal evidence base on the use of Clinically Assisted Hydration (CAH)
in the last days of life presents a challenge for clinicians. In an attempt to provide clarity, the …

Despite the growing sophistication of palliative medicine, many individuals continue to suffer
at the end of life. It is well settled that patients, suffering or not, have the right to refuse life …

This issue's “Legal Briefing” column covers recent legal developments involving voluntarily
stopping eating and drinking (VSED). Over the past decade, clinicians and bioethicists have …

This article aims to review the literature relating to the ethics of antibiotic prescription
decisions in older adults and to offer some suggestions as to how one might approach these …

Bacterial infection usually plays an important part in the fever episodes that are common in
patients in the hospice palliative care unit. The physicians' attitude to use of antibiotics in …

PURPOSE: To clarify physician attitudes toward terminal dehydration and identify the
physician-related factors contributing to their attitudes. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey …

Objective To examine antibiotic use in patients approaching end of life, in terms of frequency
of prescription, aim of treatment, beneficial and adverse effects and contribution to the …

Objectives This study investigated whether the attitudes of physicians towards justified and
unjustified litigation, and their perception of patient pressure in demanding care, influence …