photograph of Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, wearing his best beatific smile. He has just announced that in order to protect patients and their relatives from (implicitly) trigger-happy doctors and those unfeeling faceless bureaucrats who dared incentivise the Liverpool Care Pathway, he plans to ‘enshrine the “basic right” of patients to be involved in decisions when they are morta...

There are several questions about hydration in terminal care: the discussion about whether or not, and if yes how much and by which route? Shows hydration any benefits regarding survival and symptom-control? Are there side-effects of hydration? The article tries to give an overview rather than a review over the literature of the last 10 years since there is no evidence about this topic. Three s...

Despite increasing interests and urgent needs for quality end-of-life care, there is no exact definition of what is the interval referred to as end of life or what end-of-life care is. The purpose of this article is to report our examination of terms related to end-of-life care and define end-of-life care from nursing ethics perspectives. Current terms related to end-of-life care, such as termi...

Utilitarianism and quality-of-life considerations have increased the pressure to devalue life in terminal situations, leading to ethical confusion among caregivers. Where is the balance between a commitment to life and a commonsense willingness to "let go" when the time comes? This paper explores this balance, using a case history of a man with respiratory failure. This provides an opportunity ...

Recent interest in the subject of dying arises from fear of medical technology that can now prolong physiologic processes long after cognitive life has fled. The setting and type of terminal care influence the quality of death and the attitudes of those left behind. There are several alternatives to hospital care for the dying, and patients should be able to decide the terms and conditions of t...

The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying has recently been the topic of substantial media interest and also been subject to the independent Neuberger Review. This review has identified clear failings in some areas of care and recommended the Liverpool Care Pathway be phased out. I argue that while the evidence gathered of poor incidences of practice by the Review is of genuine concern for end o...

Background: The Pelger-Huet anomaly dominantly is a rare and benign inherited defect of terminal neutrophil differentiation. Although neutrophil migration may be minimally impaired, granulocytes function is otherwise normal association abnormalities such as ocular, musculoskeletal are reported very rare. Case: An eight year-old boy with good consciousness but severe muscular atrophia and diffic...

Patient aged 64 with parastomal hernia on a terminal colostomy and Bricker ileal conduit following pelvic exenteration in the context of locally advanced low rectal adenocarcinoma.