End of Life Care Ethical Issues

Common ethical issues include respecting patient autonomy, determining appropriate medical interventions, ensuring informed consent, and balancing beneficence with nonmaleficence.

Palliative care focuses on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and it can be provided alongside curative treatment.

Physician-assisted suicide involves a physician providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication that the patient may use to end their own life. It is a highly controversial ethical issue.