Council of Europe Launches Guide on Decision Making Process Regarding Medical Treatment in End-of-Life Situations

This week, the Council of Europe launched a guide on the decision making process relating to medical treatment in end-of-life situations. What rights for end of life patients? In which ethical and legal framework does the decision-making process lie? How and with whom are decisions made concerning medical treatment when it comes to implementing it or stopping it? This new guide aims to provide answers to these and many other questions.



Advances in medicine, particularly developments in medical technology, enable life to be prolonged and increase prospects of survival. However, the chronic or slow progression illnesses give rise to complex situations and are renewing the framework in which decisions are taken on medical treatment in end-of-life situations.



This guide is aimed primarily at the health care professionals concerned, but it is also a potential source of information and a basis for discussion for patients, their families and close friends, all other persons providing support, and associations dealing with end-of-life situations. It proposes benchmarks relating both to the principles that can be applied and the practices in this context and contributes, through the clarification it provides, to the overall discussion on the issue.