The Hastings Center Guidelines on End-of-Life Care

Project Director: Nancy Berlinger
Project Consultants: Bruce Jennings and Susan Wolf
Funders: The Albert Sussman Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust and the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation; additional support was provided by the donors to The Anika Papanek Memorial Fund at The Hastings Center

This project led to the production of The Hastings Center Guidelines for Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment and Care Near the End of Lif(Oxford University Press, 2013), an updated, expanded edition  of The Hastings Center’s historic publication, Guidelines on the Termination of Life-Sustaining Treatment and the Care of the Dying (1987).

The goal of the publication is to improve the quality of end of life care in the United States by providing ethical guidelines for the current generation of health care professionals on the decisions dying patients, their families, and other caregivers may face. It reflects 25 years of empirical research, clinical innovations, legal and policy developments, and evolution of professional consensus concerning the practices and systems that can support ethically sound treatment decision-making and the delivery of safe, effective, and compassionate care near the end of life. It also describe the practices, policies, and other systems that support communications and decision making and promote access to palliative care, hospice care, and other services.