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Substituted Judgment, Best Interests, and the Need for Best Respect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

Susan R. Martyn
Susan R. Martyn
Affiliation:
Law and Values at the University of Toledo College of Law
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Extract

Perhaps the most troublesome medical decisionmaking cases facing state courts concern serious healthcare decisions involving patients with severe or profound retardation. The courts who face this issue encounter a difficult dilemma. A decision to terminate a medical treatment of a dependent, vulnerable person requires considerable solicitude. Allowing a helpless person to die sooner than is medically possible directly conflicts with that person's most basic right – the right to live. However, continuing treatment in the face of terminal illness may not only prolong but also increase intense mental and physical suffering. Perpetuating near torture in the name of protecting a person's life may be equally worrisome.

Type
Special Section: Ethical Decision Making and Persons with Mental Retardation
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , Spring 1994 , pp. 195 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

Notes

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