The �window of opportunity� for death after severe brain injury: family experiences

• Autores: Jenny Kitzinger, Celia Kitzinger
• Localización: Sociology of Health & Illness, ISSN-e 1467-9566, Vol. 35, Nº. 7, 2013, págs. 1095-1112
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Abstract This article builds on and develops the emerging bioethics literature on the �window of opportunity� for allowing death by withholding or withdrawing treatment. Our findings are drawn from in-depth interviews with 26 people (from 14 different families) with severely brain injured relatives. These interviews were specifically selected from a larger study on the basis of interviewees� reports that their relatives would not have wanted to be kept alive in their current condition (e.g. in vegetative or minimally conscious states). Our analysis tracks the decision-making processes that have led to the situation in which life-sustaining treatments continue to be delivered to these patients � maintaining them in a state that some families describe as a �fate worse than death�. We show how the medico-legal �window of opportunity� for allowing the patient to die structures family experience and fails to deliver optimal outcomes for patients. We end with some suggestions for change.