Year: 1996
Type: article
Abstract: The process of health care decision making by and on behalf of patients presents complex challenges. Technological advances, skyrocketing costs, hierarchical staffing patterns, intensive government oversight, the litigation boom, ethnic diversity, and competing religious and moral beliefs about life and death all complicate the process. In some cases, these issues create conflicts between health care providers, patients, and family members over what types of care or treatment the patient should receive. Hospitals and nursing homes have been occupied for over a decade with how to resolve these bioethical disputes where the values and interests of one party are at odds with those of another. The most dramatic of .these cases involve ending life support for a patient who is terminally ill, in a persistent vegetative state, or chronically ill with a progressively fatal condition that severely affects the patient's quality of life. In some instances, courts have been asked to clarify who has the authority to make health care treatment decisions for an incapacitated patient and what guidelines should inform these decisions. States have also passed laws attempting to clarify who has decision-making authority in these cases. All states now have statutes specifically authorizing health care powers of attorney or permitting the appointment of a proxy; 48 jurisdictions have laws on living wills, and many have health care consent measures authorizing surrogates to make some or all health care decisions.
Authors: Diane E. Hoffmann, Naomi Karp
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1526295637