Patients may opt to refuse
treatment they think is excessive or unnecessary according to a
new amendment to a living-will bill passed by a House committee
Wednesday.
The amendment scrapped an article saying a refusal of
treatment could not lead to abandoning that therapy.
The bill still ensures the involvement of the family doctor
and the provision of palliative treatment.
The bill says that "the doctor, using means appropriate to
the stte of the patient, must work to alleviate his suffering,
also in the case of a refusal or a revocation of an agreement to
the health treatment indicated by the doctor.
It further says that "in the case of a patient with a
short-term deadly prognosis or of imminent death, the doctor
must refrain from treatment or a recourse to useless or
disproportionate treatment".
A clause that laid down that "the refusal or renunciation of
the health treatment indicated by the doctor may not constitute
therapeutic abandonment" was scrapped.
Private Catholic clinics will also have to apply the upcoming
law on living wills, sources said after an amendment to the
relevant bill on exempting Catholic clinics was defeated
Wednesday.
If approved, the living will law will enable people to
establish ahead of time what treatment they want at the end of
their lives, including suspending treatment altogether.
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