Avoiding Family Feuds: Responding to Surrogate Demands for Life-Sustaining Interventions

See, for example, In re Quinlan, 335 A.2d 647 (N.J. 1976); In re Conroy, 486 A.2d 1209 (N.J. 1985); and Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, 497 U.S. 261 (1990).

See Lo B. , Resolving Ethical Dilemmas: A Guide for Clinicians (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1995): at 71–72; President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Deciding to Forgo Life-Sustaining Treatment: A Report on the Ethical, Medical, and Legal Issues in Treatment Decisions (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983): at 80–82.

See President's Commission, supra note 2.

See Steinbrook R. , “Preferences of Homosexual Men with AIDS for Life-Sustaining Treatment,” N. Engl. J. Med., 314 (1986): 457–60.

See Molloy D. , “Decision Making in the Incompetent Elderly: ‘The Daughter from California Syndrome’,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 39 (1991): 396–99.

See Miles S.H. , “Informed Demand for ‘Non-Beneficial’ Medical Treatment,” N. Engl. J. Med., 325 (1991): 512–15; Paris J. Crone R.K. , and Reardon F. , “Physicians' Refusal of Requested Treatment: The Case of Baby L,” N. Engl. J. Med., 322 (1990): 1012–14; Curtis J. , “The Use of Medical Futility Rationale in Do-Not-Attempt-Resuscitation Orders,” JAMA, 273 (1995): 124–28; and Prendergast T.J. and Luce J.M. , “Increasing Incidence of Withholding and Withdrawal of Life Support from the Critically Ill,” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 155 (1997): 15–20.

See Brody H. , “Medical Futility: A Useful Concept?,” in Zucker M.B. and Zucker H.D. , eds., Medical Futility and the Evaluation of Life-Sustaining Treatment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997): 1–14.

See id.

Pellegrino E. and Thomasma D.C. , The Virtues in Medical Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993): at 131.

Beauchamp T.L. and Childress J.F. , Principles of Biomedical Ethics (New York: Oxford University Press, 4th ed., 1994): at 471.

See Miller F.G. and Brody H. , “Professional Integrity and Physician-Assisted Death,” Hastings Center Report, 25, no. 3 (1995): 8–17.

See Dubler N.N. , “Mediation and Managed Care,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 46 (1998): 359–64.

See Sehgal A. , “How Strictly Do Dialysis Patients Want Their Advance Directives Followed?,” JAMA, 267 (1992): 59–63.

See Lo , supra note 2, at 130–34.

See Rubenfeld G. and Crawford S. , “Withdrawing Life Support from Mechanically Ventilated Recipients of Bone Marrow Transplants: A Case for Evidence-Based Guidelines,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 125 (1996): 625–33.

See Fischer G.S. , “Can Goals of Care be Used to Predict Intervention Preferences in an Advance Directive?,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 157 (1997): 810–07.

See In re Conroy, 486 A.2d 1209 (N.J. 1985).

See Tonelli M. , “Substituted Judgment in Medical Practice: Evidentiary Standards on a Sliding Scale,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 25 (1997): 22–29.

See Lo , supra note 2, at 91–92.

See Dworkin R. , Life's Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993): at 328.

See Jecker N. , “The Role of Intimate Others in Medical Decision Making,” Gerontologist, 30 (1990): 65–71; Hardwig J. , “Treating the Brain Dead for the Benefit of the Family,” Journal of Clinical Ethics, 2 (1991): 53–56; and Hardwig J. , “What About the Family?,” Hastings Center Report, 20, no. 2 (1990): 5–10.

See Schneiderman L.J. Jecker N.S. , and Jonsen A.R. , “Medical Futility: Its Meaning and Ethical Implications,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 112 (1990): 949–54; and Truog R.D. Brett A.S. , and Frader J. , “The Problem with Futility,” N. Engl. J. Med., 326 (1992): 1560–64.

See Lo , supra note 2, at 73–81.

See Alpers A. and Lo B. , “When is CPR Futile?,” JAMA, 273 (1995): 156–58; and Schneiderman L.J. Jecker N.S. , and Jonsen A.R. , “Medical Futility: Response to Critiques,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 125 (1996): 669–74.

See Curtis , supra note 6.

See Luce J.M. , “Making Decisions about the Forgoing of Life-Sustaining Therapy,” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 156 (1997): 1715–18.

See Halevy A. Neal R. , and Brody B. , “The Low Frequency of Futility in an Adult Intensive Care Unit Setting,” Archives of Internal Medicine, 156 (1996): 100–04.

See Prendergast T.J. , “Resolving Conflicts Surrounding End-of-Life Care,” New Horizons, 5 (1997): 62–71.

See Lo , supra note 2, at 158–61; and Emergency Cardiac Care Committee and Subcommittee, American Heart Association, “Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiac Care VIII: Ethical Considerations in Resuscitation,” JAMA, 268 (1992): 2282–88.

See Lo , supra note 2, at 163.

See Havley A. and Brody B.A. , “A Multi-Institution Collaborative Policy on Medical Futility,” JAMA, 276 (1996): 571–74; and Murphy D.J. and Barbour E. , “GUIDe (Guidelines for the Use of Intensive Care in Denver): A Community Effort to Define Futile and Inappropriate Care,” New Horizons, 2 (1994): 326–31.

See Bay Area Network of Ethics Committees (BANEC), “Conflict Resolution Guidelines from the Nonbeneficial Treatment Working Group,” Western Journal of Medicine, 170 (1999): Forthcoming.

See Braithwaite S. and Thomasma D. , “New Guidelines on Forgoing Life-Sustaining Treatment in Incompetent Patients: An Anti-Cruelty Policy,” Annals of Internal Medicine, 104 (1986): 711–15.

See “Religious Groups Tackle End-of-Life Issues,” Last Acts: Care and Caring at the End of Life Quarterly Publication, Fall (1998): 1–2.

See Fischer , supra note 16.

See Prendergast and Luce , supra note 6; and Smedira N.G. , “Withholding and Withdrawal of Life Support from the Critically Ill,” N. Engl. J. Med., 322 (1990): 309–15.

Dunn P.M. and Levinson W. , “Discussing Futility with Patients and Families,” Journal of General Internal Medicine, 11 (1996): 689–93.

See Prendergast , supra note 28.

See Smedira , supra note 36.

See Prendergast , supra note 28.

See Asch D.A. Hansen-Flaschen J. , and Lanken P.N. , “Decisions to Limit or Not to Continue Life-Sustaining Treatment by Critical Care Physicians in the United States: Conflicts between Physicians' Practices and Patients' Wishes,” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 153 (1995): 288–92.

See Prendergast , supra note 28.

See Caralis P.V. , “The Influence of Ethnicity and Race on Attitudes toward Advance Directives, Life-Prolonging Treatments, and Euthanasia,” Journal of Clinical Ethics, 4 (1993): 155–65; Blackhall L.J. , “Ethnicity and Attitudes toward Patient Autonomy,” JAMA, 274 (1995): 820–25; and Rubin S.M. , “Increasing Completion of the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” JAMA, 271 (1994): 209–12.

See Smedira , supra note 36; and Prendergast, supra note 28.

See Annas G.J. , “Asking the Courts to Set the Standard of Emergency Care—The Case of Baby K,” N. Engl. J. Med., 330 (1994): 1542–45.