Uncertainty and Medical Authority in the World of Jay Katz

See Katz Jay , “Informed Consent—A Fairy Tale? Law's Vision”, University of Pittsburgh Law Review 39 (1977): 137.

Burt Robert A. , Taking Care of Strangers: The Rule of Law in Doctor-Patient Relations (New York: Free Press, 1979).

In re Quinlan, 355 A. 2d 647 (N.J. Sup.Ct., 1976).

Superintendent of Belchertown State School v. Saikewicz, 373 Mass. 728, 370 N.E. 2d 417 (1977).

See, eg., In re Conroy, 98 N.J. 321, 486 A.2d 1209 (1985), Brophy v. New England Sinai Hosp., 398 Mass. 417, 497 N.E. 2d 626 (1986), Kennedy John F. Memorial Hosp. v. Bludworth, 452 So.2d 921 (Fla. 1984).

Katz Jay , The Silent World of Doctor and Patient (New York: Free Press, 1984) 171 [hereafter cited as Silent World].

Silent World at 217–19.

In re Carder, No. 87-609 (D.C. Superior Ct., 1987). Judge Sullivan's order was affirmed by a panel of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals but this affirmance was vacated and the matter set for en banc consideration by the full Court; at this time, no en banc decision has been rendered.

See Jefferson v. Griffin Spalding County Hosp. Auth., 247 Ga. 86, 274 S.E.2d 457 (1981); Nancy Rhoden, “The Judge in the Delivery Room: The Emergence of Court-Ordered Cesareans”, 74 California Law Review 1951 (1986).

In re Carder transcript, June 18, 1987, at pp. 83–84 [hereafter cited as Transcript].

Id.: 89.

Id.: 89–90.

Id.: 91.

Id.: 93.

Id.: 95.

Id.: 84.

Id.: 85.

I owe this observation to Stephen Sowle, Yale Law School Class of 1990.

Transcript at 60. Later, when the judge interrupted the summation by Angela's attorney and observed, “She's going to die, Mr. Sylvester,” Angela's husband interjected, “Who is to say she's going to die?” Transcript at 76.

Transcript at pp. 20–21 (cross-examination of Dr. Hamner), p. 33 (cross-examination of Dr. Weingold).

A year earlier, another District of Columbia hospital had successfully sought a court order for a Cesarean operation where the mother's prolonged labor endangered the fetus's survival but the mother refused consent for the surgery without giving any specific reason for her refusal. In re Maydun, 114 Daily Wash. L. Rptr. (D.C. Super. Ct., 1986). This case differed from Angela Carder's in many ways: in particular, the operation there did not seriously endanger the mother's life, the fetus was virtually certain to survive if the operation were performed, and the hospital physicians all wanted to perform the operation. The Maydun precedent created no sensible risk of criminal or civil liability for George Washington Hospital if—as Angela Carder, her family and her physicians all wanted—the Cesarean operation had not been performed.

Transcript at 7.

Supra note 2, at 164–69.

Silent World at 127, citing F. Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, trans D. Magarshack (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1958) pp. 300–301.