Advanced and end of life care: cautionary suggestions.

This article consider some clinical and population level approaches to advanced care of chronic conditions and end of life care. One approach aims to follow patient values and preferences about acceptable end of life (EOL) as elicited by questionnaires. The grounds for emphasising patients' preferences and the adequacy of the questionnaires are examined. Other approaches involve additional aims such as meeting patient and family members needs, providing information, cost effectiveness and satisfying professionals' preferences for a certain type of EOL experience. Issues raised by adding these (and other) aims are examined. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.