Dilemmas faced by health professionals surrounding life-sustaining treatment

Health professionals often face significant dilemmas while considering the validity of offering or continuing life-sustaining treatment in critical patients (McPherson et al, 2019).

Since the inception of the Human Rights Act 1998, there has been great deal of speculation regarding its impact on medical decision-making, although the true effect may be unknown until a body of case law has developed, illustrating how the legal system interprets the Act (Maclean, 2000; Bahadur, 2001; Woogara, 2001). What is clear, however, is that this Act does not represent anything new, but only reflects, very closely, the existing General Medical Council (GMC) guidelines of Good Medical Practice (GMC, 2013).

Historically, clinical decisions were based upon ethical standards on issues surrounding human dignity and were guided by patients’ consent and best interests. These are largely compliant with the Act. In the future there will be multiple instances where this legislation will be used to challenge medical decisions. It is therefore essential for clinicians to take account of these regulations, ensure their decision-making is transparent and be prepared to withstand scrutiny (Samanta and Samanta, 2005; Gillon, 2015).