2025 Volume 13 Pages 31-36
A patient with end-stage metastatic liver tumor developed persistent hypoglycemia and required high-calorie infusions to maintain the level of consciousness, but the patient wanted to discontinue glycemic correction, which led me to consider the associated ethical issues. Therefore, an ethical analysis was conducted. And, as a result of our ethical analysis and consideration, I have come to conclude that a rigorous evaluation and resolution of the contextual features (in other words, to identify and resolve not only the physical and psychological distress of the patient, but also the latent social or existential problems conflicted with their manifest preferences) through a multidisciplinary professional team approach is essential to respond to such a patient’s request for discontinuation of treatment with justice (equity and fairness), because the considerations of the total (physical, psychosocial and existential) vulnerability of the end-of-life patients (and sometimes family) is essential to clarify the true patient preferences, realize respect for autonomy and keep justice as equity for the acceptance of benefits of medicine.
