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Letters |15 September 1995

Nonabandonment: Medical Ethics

Michael Levy, MD

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  • Park Nicollet Medical Center; Minneapolis, MN 55416
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The article by Quill and Cassel on nonabandonment [1] has nothing to do with abandonment. The first patient described was a woman who refused to accept her diagnosis and its implications. It is one thing to support patients but quite another to give them false hope and prolong the agony of their death. There is no justification for giving parenteral nutrition to a patient dying of cancer simply because they could not accept their diagnosis. It appears that the patient spent a considerable part of the end of her life in agony, with no benefit to her. Her life would have been much more comfortable and shorter if total parenteral nutrition had not been given and if she had been placed in a hospice earlier. Her physicians seem to have allowed her to manage her course and completely control her treatment.
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Levy M. Nonabandonment: Medical Ethics. Ann Intern Med. ;123:475. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-123-6-199509150-00029

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Published: Ann Intern Med. 1995;123(6):475.

DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-123-6-199509150-00029

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