Legal myths about terminating life support
A. Meisel
Center for Medical Ethics, University of Pittsburgh, PA.
There are a number of myths about what the law permits concerning the
termination of life support, some of which spring from a fundamental
misconception of what law is. A serious misunderstanding of the law can
lead to tragic results for physicians, health care institutions, patients,
and families. These misunderstandings are (1) anything that is not
specifically permitted by law is prohibited; (2) termination of life
support is murder or suicide; (3) a patient must be terminally ill for life
support to be stopped; (4) it is permissible to terminate extraordinary
treatments, but not ordinary ones; (5) it is permissible to withhold
treatment, but once started, it must be continued; (6) stopping tube
feeding is legally different from stopping other treatments; (7)
termination of life support requires going to court; and (8) living wills
are not legal.
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