Ethical and Legal Aspects of Reanimation: When do you have to Start, and when should you Stop?

Doctors are not allowed to withhold first aid in case of impending danger of live. Akin to other areas of medicine and nursing, the patient's will has to be taken into account. If we are dealing with reanimation, normally, it is a medical emergency, in which the patient is unable to consent ( or decline treatment). To what extent can the wish of the patient be legally relevant in such situations? The following contribution discusses the options of the patient anticipating the refusal of a possible reanimation and the extent a doctor is bound by such a refusal of the patient in emergency situations. Furthermore, it is discussed whether doctors have to conduct a reanimation in every case and when a reanimation can be terminated. Finally, the article will present the recent recommendation of the Austrian bioethics council on the terminology of medical decisions at the end of life.