Ethical decision making in emergency situations

Through the concrete case of a patient having a life-threatening prognosis after surgery, we discuss the problem of the difficult ethical decision-making during on-call duty. The difficulty in deciding what to do was not due to a difference of opinion between the nursing staff and the patient or his family, but to a difference of opinion within the medical team, in this case between the surgeon and the anaesthesiologist. Although both were motivated by the desire to ensure a dignified end of life for the patient and by respect for the law, their judgments were markedly different. We reiterate the interest and the limits of the decision-making procedure and we stress the importance of knowing the legal texts relating to the rights of the patient at the end of life in order to avoid legal pitfalls. (C) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.