Patient may refuse treatment,living-will (4)

(ANSA) - Rome, April 19 - 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.