BMJ 1995;311:1502 (2 December)

Letters

Informed consent for trial of elective ventilation will not be forthcoming

EDITOR,--J Fabre seeks the continuation and legalisation of the unlawful procedure of elective ventilation on the grounds that it is not harmful to patients.1 Later Fabre contradicts this by admitting that elective ventilation might result in a persistent vegetative state and adds that the British Transplantation Society advocates "a carefully audited clinical trial." Surely such a trial, even if it was considered to be ethical, would re

quire the explicitly informed prior consent ofthe patients concerned; it is difficult to see how this could be obtained.

A persistent vegetative state is not the only possible harm to a patient, as elective ventilation must prolong the process of dying. Once death is inevitable many people would prefer it to occur as quickly and naturally as possible and would wish to be able to trust their medical attendants to allow this. A badly damaged but artificially oxygenated brain (not necessarily brain stem . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Elective ventilation of potential organ donors
J Fabre
BMJ 1995 311: 950. [Extract] [Full Text]

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