Why the study?
Discontinuation of pacemakers is considered ethically sound, but healthcare professional comfort with device discontinuation may vary.
This case report highlights the ethical and clinical considerations involved in evaluating a patient's request for pacemaker deactivation at the end of life.
Underscores need for holistic ethical evaluation of device deactivation requests; leaves open standardized protocols and prospective studies.
Individuals living with serious illness might request deactivation of a cardiac implantable electronic device for a variety of reasons. Discontinuation of implantable cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers are considered to be ethically sound procedures. However, healthcare professional comfort with discontinuation of different types of devices might vary. In this case we describe a veteran's request for pacemaker deactivation and our interdisciplinary team's response to this request, including evaluation of total suffering, ethical considerations, and mood symptoms at end-of-life.
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Meyerson et al. (2025) studied this question.
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