BACKGROUND: Medical treatment decisions should be based on the preferences of informed patients or their proxies and on the expected outcomes of treatment. Because seriously ill patients are at risk for cardiac arrest, examination ...

CONTEXT: The epidemiology of do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders for hospitalized patients has been reported, but little is known about factors associated with the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). OBJECTIVE: To identify ...

BACKGROUND: Patient age may influence decisions to withhold life-sustaining treatments, independent of patients' preferences for or ability to benefit from such treatments. Controversy exists about the appropriateness of ...

BACKGROUND: Alleviating the problems faced by dying persons and their families has drawn substantial public attention, but little is known about the experience of dying. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the experience of dying ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether the lack of effect of advance directives (ADs) on decision-making in SUPPORT might arise, in part, from the content of the actual documents. DESIGN: Advance directives placed in the medical ...