Conclusions: The recent trend has been to rely on proxy decision making for incompetent patients. Support for proxy decision making has failed to acknowledge the growing body of ethical and empirical research suggesting that ...

In the traditional 'fix-it' model of medical decision making, the identified problem is typically characterized by a diagnosis that indicates a deviation from normalcy. When a medical problem is multifaceted and the available ...

...In this paper we will limit our focus to how the decision in Cruzan is likely to affect the doctor-patient relationship, especially in the critical activities surrounding decision-making about the use of life sustaining ...