Mrs. K is a thirty-one-year-old Russian-speaking mother of two, who was brought in by ambulance after attempting suicide by jumping in front of train. Probable depression x months. Stressor: lost custody battle over older child. Current status: deep coma, ventilator-dependent, and prognosis grim. Next of kin is estranged husband; he demands participation in medical decision making. Legal proxy is patient's boyfriend; forcibly removed from the intensive care unit (ICU) for agitated behavior and alcohol intoxication.
References
1.
See NelsonH.L. and NelsonJ.L., The Patient in the Family: An Ethics of Medicine and Families (New York: Routledge Press, 1995).
2.
See, for example, New York State Task Force on Life and Law, When Others Must Choose: Deciding for Patients Without Capacity (New York: New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, 1992).
3.
In re Quinlan, 335 A.2d 647 (N.J. 1976).
4.
See JacobsonJ.A., “Patients' Understanding and Use of Advance Directives,”Western Journal of Medicine, 16 (1994): 232–36; HareJ. and NelsonC., “Will Outpatients Complete Living Wills? A Comparison of Two Interventions,”Journal of General Internal Medicine, 6 (1991): 41–46; and BokS., “Personal Directives for Care at the End of Life,”N. Engl. J. Med., 295 (1976): 367–69.
5.
For arguments against living wills, see LynnJ., “Why I Don't Have a Living Will,”Law, Medicine & Health Care, 19 (1991): 101–04.
6.
See BrettA.S., “Limitations of Listing Specific Medical Interventions in Advance Directives,”JAMA, 266 (1991): 825–28.
7.
See, for example, ZweibelN. and CasselC., “Treatment Choices at the End of Life: A Comparison of Decisions by Older Patients and Their Physician Selected Proxies,”Gerontologist, 29 (1989): 615–21.
8.
See, for example, UhlmannR.F.PearlmanR.A., and CainK.C., “Physicians' and Spouses' Predictions of Elderly Patients' Resuscitation Preferences,”Journal of Gerontology, 43, no. 5 (1988): M115–M121.
9.
See TolstoyL., Anna Karenina (New York: Viking Penguin, 1954).
10.
See KatzJ., The Silent World of Doctor and Patient (New York: Free Press, 1984).
11.
See MinuchinS., Families and Family Therapy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974).
12.
See, for example, BlusteinJ., “Organ Donation and the Question of Paternity” (unpublished manuscript).
13.
See BishopE., “In the Village,” in BishopE., The Collected Prose (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1984): 251–74.
14.
Id. at 251.
15.
See DublerN.N., “The Doctor-Proxy Relationship: The Neglected Connection,”Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, 5 (1995): 289–306.
16.
See GilliganC., In a Different Voice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982).
17.
See GilliganC., eds., Mapping the Moral Domain (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988).
18.
See MurphyS.T., “Ethnicity and Advance Care Directives,”Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 24 (1996): 108–17. See also BlackhallL.J., “Ethnicity and Attitudes Toward Patient Anatomy,”JAMA, 274 (1995): 820–25.
19.
See, for example, EmanuelL.L., “Advance Directives for Medical Care—A Case for Greater Use,”N. Engl. J. Med., 324 (1991): 889–95; and DanisM., “A Prospective Study of Advance Directives for Life-Sustaining Care,”N. Engl. J. Med., 324 (1991): 882–88.
20.
See In re John Storar, 420 N.E.2d 64 (N.Y. 1981); and Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, 497 U.S. 261 (1990).
21.
See, for example, Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 36–3231 (West 1998); Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 15–18.5–103 (West 1999); and S.C. Code Ann. § 44-66-30 (Law Co-op. 1998).
