Ethics in the intensive care unit

Abstract

It is important to understand the basics of the biomedical ethics when functioning in the intensive care unit as the milieu offers so many challenges in this area. We focused on surrogate decision-making, ethics consultations, end-of-life care, research in the critical care environment and brain death and organ transplantation. The discussion included confounding areas in each such as transfusion in Jehovah's Witnesses, incapacitated patients, appointment of surrogates, differing opinions on the definition of brain death, and what this means the public as a whole.