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Best interests

concept · in 4 sources (2017–2018)

The principle by which doctors decide for a patient without capacity what is in the patient's best interests.

Sources by year: 2017: 1 · 2018: 3

Also known as: best interest principle, best-interests decision

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

Great Ormond Street Hospital (6) · Charlie Gard case (7) · United Kingdom (6) · Euthanasia (2) · Assisted suicide (2) · Molly Hunt (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2018

  • 2018-01-10 · Euthanasia - Medical Ethics and Law at the end of life — a guest: Charlotte and Molly call "passive euthanasia", meaning withdrawing or withholding treatment so that someone dies, an unhelpful term: euthanasia is illegal, while withdrawing treatment in a patient's best interests is good clinical practice. — 00:05:00
    • Ali says withdrawing treatment means judging that the particular treatment, not continuing to live, is no longer in the patient's best interests, even if the patient will probably die. — 00:07:36
  • 2018-01-27 · Charlie Gard - Medical Ethics and Law — Abi 5A9Ae87434: Abi says an American doctor offered Charlie Gard an experimental treatment; his parents wanted to fly him to the US, Great Ormond Street Hospital said this was not in his best interests, and a court battle followed. — 00:00:58
    • Ali says the Charlie Gard case hinged on his best interests: Great Ormond Street Hospital, backed by many experts, held that continued or experimental treatment was not in them, while his parents wanted to give him a chance. — 00:01:58
    • Ali says Charlie Gard's parents wanted continued and experimental treatment while the hospital thought it futile, so the courts were brought in as an independent body to hear both sides and decide his best interests. — 00:05:41
    • Ali says the judge agreed with Great Ormond Street's experts that the evidence was not there, so the best-interests decision was against the experimental treatment and for withdrawing Charlie Gard's life support, as each day meant suffering. — 00:07:29
    • Ali says the parents' wishes do not automatically trump medical opinion: it is about the child's best interests, doctors must take the parents' view into account, and if they disagree an independent court decides. — 00:11:20
    • Ali reads Great Ormond Street Hospital's statement saying that since the first hearing in March 2017 it held every day was not in Charlie Gard's best interests, that two international experts believed they elicited a pain response, and that his relationship with the world had been one of suffering. — 00:15:43
    • Ali says Great Ormond Street Hospital agreed it would have provided the treatment regardless of cost had it thought it in Charlie Gard's best interests. — 00:18:32
    • Ali says it was not that continuing to live was against Charlie Gard's best interests, but that the specific treatments, the experimental therapy and mechanical ventilation, were. — 00:22:14
  • 2018-02-24 · Breaking Bad News / Death & Dying - Cambridge medical student VLOG #25 — Ali explains that whether to attempt CPR is technically a medical decision a patient cannot demand, yet doctors discuss it, explaining the patient's best interests and weighing patient's and family's views. — 00:05:15

2017

  • 2017-12-21 · Consent, Capacity and Jehovah's Witnesses - Medical Ethics & Law for interviews — Ali says that for a patient without capacity doctors look for an advance directive or a lasting power of attorney, and if there is neither, as most of the time, act on a best-interests principle. — 00:00:58
    • Molly Hunt: Molly says that with a health and wellbeing LPA the patient has nominated someone to decide for them, and doctors must be satisfied that this person acts in the patient's best interests. — 00:20:18
    • a guest: Without capacity, an advance directive or an LPA, doctors make a best-interests decision, taking into account what the patient may have wanted, and must talk to friends and family about the patient's religious and cultural beliefs. — 00:21:36
    • a guest: A best-interests decision is never one doctor's alone: the whole multidisciplinary team, from junior doctors and the consultant to nurses, physios and occupational therapists, makes it together. — 00:22:11
    • a guest: Best-interests decisions can be very hard, as when sending a patient to intensive care for ventilation is judged not in their interest while the family wants them kept alive. — 00:22:40
    • Ali says the best-interests argument was one of the key points of the Charlie Gard case at Great Ormond Street this year (2017), essentially a best-interests decision by the doctors. — 00:23:34