General out-patient palliative care (GOPC) must be integrated into the care of patients with life-limiting diseases. Aim of the study was to evaluate experiences of general practitioners concerning advance directives and ...

It is unclear if advance directives (living wills) are associated with end-of-life expenditures and treatments.

Created in 2010, the French National Observatory on End of Life Care is responsible for drawing up an overview of existing knowledge in order to gain a better understanding of the conditions of end of life. It must contribute ...

Left ventricular assist devices as destination therapy (DT) improve quality of life for many patients with advanced heart failure. However, DT can be associated with risks such as infection, bleeding, and stroke, and may ...

Questions on what it means to live and die well are raised and discussed in the hospice movement. A phenomenological lifeworld perspective may help professionals to be aware of meaningful and important dimensions in the ...

Whereas most studies have focused on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, few have dealt comprehensively with other critical interventions administered at the end of life. We surveyed cancer patients, family caregivers, ...

A clinical problem may arise when caring for patients or their surrogates who prefer continued aggressive care based on the belief that a miracle will occur, despite a clinician's belief that further medical treatment is ...

Facilitating moral insight in end of life care can be challenging, and the purpose of this paper is to illustrate how this can be nurtured by means of creative literature. Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych is presented as an ...

To determine the frequencies and types of limitation of medical treatment performed by physician members of the German Society for Palliative Medicine and to analyse the findings with respect to clinical and ethical aspects ...