Is it ethical?

Someone I know is studying end of life care. She made me familiar with what is called “the surprise question” — a question put to a patient’s medical team asking if they would be surprised if the patient were dead in 6 months or a year. The answer can help guide treatment to meet the realistic expectations for the patient’s outcome. Because modern medicine is oriented toward treatment and more treatment until no further options remain, all too infrequently patients with little hope of recovery are submitted to considerable painful and experience a lot of suffering because of the notion that the fight must go on. Palliative care, on the other hand, is willing to acknowledge that sometimes what we need is comfort care not aggressive treatment. The surprise question opens the way to contemplate when is the time for palliative care. Well, i have been intrigued by the power of this question ever since learning of it. And it occurs to me that a variant of it might be of use if applied to the care of fat patients. Bear with me here.
Source: Jung At Heart - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs