Legal Procedures in Wanglie: A Two-Step, Not a Sidestep
Creator
Miles, Steven H.
Bibliographic Citation
Journal of Clinical Ethics. 1991 Winter; 2(4): 285-286.
Abstract
Hospital policies...have a very limited role in addressing the substantive issue of authority with regard to nonbeneficial therapies. First, they could not be limited, as Mishkin suggests, to persons in a persistent vegetative state. Nonbeneficial therapies encompass many other scenarios including ineffective cancer chemotherapy or open-heart surgery on profoundly demented persons. Second, I am not convinced that families or patients could be meaningfully informed of the specific relevance of such policies to their care in advance of a dispute. Most importantly, the view that such policies are required as a foundation to withhold nonbeneficial therapy implies that patients otherwise have a new right to command the provision of nonbeneficial therapies....It may well be judicially preferable to ask directly for declarative relief from a duty to provide a treatment, as Mishkin suggests. I am not convinced that such an approach would be "ethically" superior....Third, the novel, declarative approach directly risks a precedent that would affirm the family's right to demand futile therapy....Ultimately, when public policy on this kind of dispute is clearer, a declarative strategy may well be preferable. For now, the Wanglie case has outlined the fundamental issues of this novel legal question and has generated a fruitful discussion of a complex issue in patient care and public policy.
Permanent Link
Find in a Library.http://hdl.handle.net/10822/737498
Date
1991Subject
Allowing to Die; Cancer; Decision Making; Family Members; Futility; Guardians; Hospital Policies; Institutional Policies; Judicial Action; Legal Aspects; Legal Guardians; Patient Advocacy; Patient Care; Patients; Persistent Vegetative State; Physicians; Public Policy; Surgery; Withholding Treatment;
Collections
Metadata
Show full item recordRelated items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Legal Procedures in Wanglie: A Two-Step, Not a Sidestep
Miles, Steven H. (1991-12)