Adolescents and the Choice of End of Life Care

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Recommended: 3. Literature review of palliative care

This paper will focus on the two different sides of adolescents and their choice concerning end of life care. The first section will be adolescent centered and will help to provide a backbone to reinforce the choices they legally should be able to make using their right to autonomy. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Institute of Medicine did a very helpful study, that is pro adolescent choice that will be discussed in the first section of the paper. The second section will focus on Paternalism and the ethics behind the health care team making the ultimate decision that will benefit the patient. As well as information and studies in regard to an adolescent’s decision making process, and their tendency to be impulsive. Keywords: adolescents, end of life, healthcare, choice, autonomy, paternalism, impulsiveness, decision-making Adolescents and the Choice of End of Life End of Life Care involves choices such as hospice some instances, if that is what the patient chooses. Hospice involves that of palliative care, where health care professionals instead of treating the illness treat the patient they help to keep them comfortable and eliminate pain (Allender, Rector & Warner 2010). The choice of a patient’s end of life care is often considered after the diagnosis of a terminal illness, and the patient is able to decide how they would like to spend the rest of their days. Adolescence is characterized by a time of growing and finding ones self, which makes the debate about whether or not an adolescent should be able to make a decision about their own health care. In Favor of Adolescents’ Choice At what age should a person be able to make big decisions in life? We all start off having every choice made for us, that for the mo... ... middle of paper ... ... 37(8), 712-731. doi:10.1080/87565641.2012.718815 Quinn, G.P., Murphy, D., Knapp, C., Stearsman, D., Bradley-Klug, K. L., Sawczyn, K., & Clayman, M. (2011). Who decides? decision making and fertility preservation in teens with cancer: A review of the literature. J Adolesc Health, Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3179606/ Tang, L. (2012). The patient’s anxiety before seeing a doctor and her/his hospital choice behavior in china. BMC Public Health, Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3536590/ Wiener, Lori, Elizabeth Ballard, Tara Brennan, Haven Battles, Pedro Martinez, and Maryland Pao. 2008. "How I wish to be remembered: the use of an advance care planning document in adolescent and young adult populations." Journal Of Palliative Medicine 11, no. 10: 1309-1313. MEDLINE with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed May 26, 2014).

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