End-of-life Decision-making in Community-Acquired Pneumonia

The care of patients who are dying is a special purview of physicians, but it requires an assessment both of medical needs and the psychological, spiritual, and social needs of the dying patients and their families. Most situations yield to a comprehensive assessment of the patient as a person with many needs and expectations, informed by principles that can result in demonstrably ethical decision-making, and accompanied by techniques that can provide for a peaceful death. The Lancet has published excerpts of interviews with leading physicians and scientists. One question asked of all is how they would like to die, and invariably the answer accentuates brevity, and an expectation of having led a fulllife. Where both conditions cannot be met, skilled physicians can provide important leadership in providing the type of care for others that they would want for themselves.