Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in a patient's best interests : Australian judicial deliberations

Abstract

•Intractable disputes about withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from adults who lack capacity are rare but challenging. Judicial resolution may be needed in some of these cases.
 
 •A central concept for judicial (and clinical) decision making in this area is a patient's “best interests”. Yet what this term means is contested.
 
 •There is an emerging Supreme Court jurisprudence that sheds light on when life-sustaining treatment will, or will not, be judged to be in a patient's best interests.
 
 •Treatment that is either futile or overly burdensome is not in a patient's best interests. Although courts will consider patient and family wishes, they have generally deferred to the views of medical practitioners about treatment decisions.