Letters

Care of dying patients in hospital

EDITOR,--I was shocked by every aspect of the paper on the care of dying patients in hospital, but perhaps most of all by the nature of observer nonparticipant research in this context.¹ I have no interest in attacking the researchers concerned, enmeshed as they are in a system not of their making, but this paper seems to raise issues of wider concern: it is to me a clear case of the "scientific" approach leading to grossly unethical behaviour. How could anyone in the interests of a research paper, however important, leave a dying woman begging for a glass of water on no fewer than four occasions for 30 minutes? How could this non-participating observer allow a woman dying of hepatic carcinoma to fail in attempting to drink unaided for four hours before helping her? In my opinion research of this nature needs rethinking . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Care of dying patients in hospital

M Mills, H T O Davies, and W A Macrae
BMJ 1994 309: 583-586. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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