The Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences has produced a report on the Care of patients in the terminal phase of life. This latest version stresses the rights of all patients, who are competent, to determine whether or not various treatments may be administered. This is the case even if third parties think the patient’s wishes are against their best interests and apply whether the patient is a child, an adolescent or is legally incapacitated. Advance directives completed when a patient was able to express their own views must be followed if they apply and if there is no reason to think they no longer reflect the patient’s wishes.
