Ethische Dilemmata in der Neurologie bei Sterbeverfügungen

Since the Dying Decree Act came into effect in Austria, 25% of cases recorded by the ASCIRS registry of the Austrian Palliative Society have been associated with neurological diseases. On the one hand, this underlines the importance for the establishment of a dying will, but also underlines the great responsibility of neurologists, even if this pushes them to their ethical limits and results in dilemmas due to decision-making between neuropalliation and a patient’s wish to die. It is nevertheless precisely patients with chronic neurological diseases who need specialist neurological support through the end of life, including counseling on disease-specific advance directives and support for relatives after an assisted suicide.