For Loved Ones with NO or Vague Living Wills-Making End-of-Life Decisions if There #39;s No Plug to Pull
This presentation, "Consensus of Substituted Judgment: A New Tool for End-of-Life Decision-Making," is a narrated, slightly edited and expanded PowerPoint presentation of Dr. Stanley Terman. It was delivered on Nov. 9, 2012, at the "Conference on Legal, Medical, and Ethical Issues in End-of-Life Care" held at the Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. The "new tool" is a set of illustrated cards that several loved ones and concerned others can use as they strive to attain these two goals: (A) To make the same decision the patient would have made; (B) to reduce their own anxiety, stress, and guilt. Here is a way to respond diligently, when a physician asks a loved one to make a difficult treatment decision; for instance, about withholding or withdrawing medical treatment when this treatment has a high risk of harm and burdens but is no longer beneficial to the patient. Surrogate-decision makers can choose to decide anonymously, in private. This avoids any one person being the "tie-breaker" to "pull the plug on Grandma." Alternatively, all can discuss each card/item that illustrates a medical or mental condition--as they together, strive for all to agree. This tool can be used for any patient who has NO Living Will or whose previously expressed medical/health care instructions are too vague for the treating physician to know precisely WHAT the patient wants and WHEN. The tool can be used for any terminal illnesses as well as for Advanced Dementia--for ...From:Stanley TermanViews:24 0ratingsTime:36:39More inNonprofits Activism
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