Abstract
This Article proposes a procedure for making decisions to forego life-sustaining treatment for adult, developmentally disabled, public wards who are not competent to make health care decisions. Few commentators or cases address the special considerations involved in making life-sustaining treatment decisions for this patient population. The proposal attempts to fill this gap with a patient-centered process that allows decisionmakers, without prior judicial approval, to forego life-sustaining treatment for adult, developmentally disabled, public wards who have been reliably diagnosed with specific medical conditions.
MeSH terms
-
Adult
-
Advance Directives / legislation & jurisprudence
-
Coma / therapy
-
Consensus
-
Decision Making*
-
Disabled Persons / legislation & jurisprudence*
-
Ethics Committees, Clinical
-
Ethics, Medical
-
Guidelines as Topic
-
Humans
-
Judicial Role
-
Life Support Care / legislation & jurisprudence
-
Life Support Care / standards*
-
Mental Competency / legislation & jurisprudence*
-
Palliative Care / standards
-
Patient Advocacy / legislation & jurisprudence
-
Right to Die / legislation & jurisprudence
-
Risk Assessment*
-
Stress, Psychological
-
Terminal Care / legislation & jurisprudence
-
Terminal Care / standards
-
Treatment Refusal
-
United States
-
Withholding Treatment