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 June 1983, a task force appointed by the Minnesota Board on Aging issued a set of guidelines designed to improve the process of making decisions about when to provide "supportive care," i.e., "care and treatment to ...

Over the past two decades a societal consensus has developed around the principle that decisions about life-sustaining treatment should be guided by patient self-determination. According to the President's Commission, ...