Reidun Førde

30.10.2024: Palliative sedation has been criticised for being unethical and difficult to distinguish from euthanasia (1). Euthanasia is prohibited under Norwegian law and violates the Code of Ethics for Doctors (2, 3). The so-called Bærum case (4, 5) prompted the Norwegian Medical Association to devise ethical...

10.12.2018: Cases concerning children and adolescents are brought before clinical ethics committees when healthcare personnel find the value choices they face to be particularly challenging. In this article, we describe experiences from discussions of 37 such cases in a clinical ethics committee at a hospital...

21.03.2017: In 2013, approximately 47 % of all deaths in Norway occurred in nursing homes (1). An increasing proportion of nursing home patients with cognitive failure (2) and a high number of critical events, such as acute deterioration in the health condition, represent challenges in terms of providing care...

02.02.2017: Doctors who work with elderly, ill patients need to take account of numerous concerns, and collaboration with other agencies is often required. Patients are entitled to clinically adequate and empathic health care, which must be both beneficial and cost-effective (1, 2). As a main rule, treatment...

10.02.2015: Palliative sedation of patients at the end of life involves a number of medical, ethical and legal challenges. As a support to doctors who provide this treatment to patients who cannot be helped in any other way, the Norwegian Medical Association prepared a set of guidelines in 2001. These have now...

10.02.2015: The right to refuse treatment at the end of life is explicitly expressed in Section 4 – 9 of the Patients’ and Users’ Rights Act. To fulfil this right, a conversation must take place with patients while they are still capable of it. Advance directives by patients in the form of living wills –...

25.06.2013: Modern health services make several, and sometimes conflicting, demands on doctors. Ethical problems and moral distress come to the fore when a person has a clear perception of what it is morally correct to do but is prevented from acting in line with this ideal (1, 2). Moral distress can also occur...

28.08.2008: In 2002, the ownership and responsibility for running 250 Norwegian health institutions was transferred from the county level to the state level through five regional, and 34 local, health trusts. The reform also involved new principles of organisation and management. Before the reform, the...