Life support

Life support

Life support, in the medical field, refers to a set of therapies for preserving a patient's life when essential body systems are not functioning sufficiently to sustain life unaided. Life support therapies utilize some combination of several techniques: feeding tubes, intravenous drips, total parenteral nutrition, mechanical respiration, heart/lung bypass, urinary catheterization and dialysis. The same techniques are also used for intensive care or in some cases during surgery, though life support is employed to stabilize a patient and is typically not sufficient to allow full recovery from their condition.

Ethics

It has been proposed that the practice of artificially prolonging the life of an individual who will not recover to be unethical.
Roman Catholic moral teachings, pronounced in 1993, suggest that the employment of artificial means is not necessary to fulfill the duty to respect life; however the term "artificial means" may vary in meaning between different schools of thought within and outside Catholicism. Most Catholic theologians however, divide the issue into "ordinary" and "extraordinary" means, and believe that it is an ethical imperative to continue the ordinary means, but ethically neutral to withhold the extraordinary means. They define ordinary means as things like feeding, and extraordinary means as things like artificial breathing. This must not be confused with DNR orders or euthanasia, the withdrawal of such support from the vegetative, comatose, elderly or those who have serious injuries or illnesses that are debilitating or even terminal. All patients must be given some means of ventilation and adequate nutrition and hydration; as well as adequate palliative pain medication, such as opioid analgesics, even though it may shorten their lives.

ee also

*Basic life support
*Advanced cardiac life support
*Uniform Rights of the Terminally Ill Act


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • life support — n equipment, material, and treatment needed to keep a seriously ill or injured patient alive <research shows that if basic life support is used on serious trauma victims within four minutes and advanced life support within eight, nearly 50% of …   Medical dictionary

  • life-support — adj providing support necessary to sustain life esp of, relating to, or being a life support system <life support equipment> …   Medical dictionary

  • life support — noun artificial maintenance of life, continuance of life through medical equipment, extension of life by technological means, sustenance of life by artificial means Generally being kept alive, fostering of life, life retention, preservation of… …   Law dictionary

  • life-support — life′ support adj. med of or pertaining to equipment or measures that sustain or artificially substitute for essential body functions, as breathing, or that allow humans to function within a hostile environment, as outer space or ocean depths •… …   From formal English to slang

  • life support — ► NOUN Medicine ▪ maintenance of vital functions following disablement or in an adverse environment …   English terms dictionary

  • life-support — [līf′sə pôrt΄] adj. 1. Engineering designating or of any system that enables normal living in space, under water, etc. 2. Med. designating or of any device or system, usually connected directly to a patient, that can take over for a vital body… …   English World dictionary

  • life-support — adjective of or pertaining to equipment or methods used to sustain life • Pertains to noun: ↑life support system * * * ¦ ̷ ̷  ̷ ̷ ¦ ̷ ̷ adjective : providing support necessary to sustain life ; especially : of, relating to, or being a life… …   Useful english dictionary

  • life support — noun 1. equipment that makes life possible in otherwise deadly environmental conditions the astronauts relied on their life support systems • Syn: ↑life support system • Hypernyms: ↑equipment 2. medical equipment that assists or replaces… …   Useful english dictionary

  • life-support — /luyf seuh pawrt , pohrt /, adj. 1. of or pertaining to equipment or measures that sustain or artificially substitute for essential body functions, as breathing or disposal of body wastes: Without life support equipment, the patient might die. 2 …   Universalium

  • life-support — adjective Date: 1965 providing support necessary to sustain life; especially of or relating to a system providing such support < life support equipment > …   New Collegiate Dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”