"The ethical, legal, and social aspects regarding research, diagnosis and treatment of patients with disorders of consciousness" (R-11584)

The care for patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) entails a wide variety of ethical issues, many of which are related to decision making processes. Caring for DOC patients indeed comes with a continuous stream of decisions to be made, including decisions on clinical care, research participation, and/or (dis)continuation of life support. Several issues complicate the decision making process. There is no obvious approach to these ethical issues, and much of the knowledge and insights that are essential to developing a well-considered ethical approach are currently lacking. This project aims to establish a more coherent and comprehensive approach of the ethical, legal and social issues surrounding diagnosis and treatment in patients with DOC.

Keywords:disorders of consciousness, Ethics, proxy decision making

Disciplines:Bioethics

Project type:Collaboration project