How a judge copes with making end-of-life decisions

If a person fails to plan properly with a living will, advance directive, designation of a health care agent, or similar technique, the burden of deciding whether to remove life support often falls on a judge.

For a discussion of how one judge copes with this situation, see Veronica Torrejón, Lehigh County judge’s panel wrestles with end-of-life decisions, The Morning Call, Jan. 26, 2009, from which the following excerpts are taken:

Everyone dies, but how and under what circumstances are matters Lehigh County Judge Edward Reibman often finds himself pondering.

Not because he’s a particularly morbid man. He has the awesome responsibility of making decisions when a person is incapacitated and there’s a dispute over who makes end-of-life choices.

In the absence of a living will, Reibman can decide whether someone lives on a respirator in a hospital room or dies at home with friends.

He wrestles with his decisions, wondering if his rulings reflect his own end-of-life preferences or the little he knows about the wishes of the person he’s charged with deciding for. * * *

His search for answers led him to convene a panel earlier this month, a talk that those who attended said probably will be the first of many. Reibman called together doctors, lawyers, religious leaders and court-appointed guardians, all charged with helping make decisions for others.

They all agreed on one thing — the right choices are seldom clear.

Special thanks to Neil E. Hendershot of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania law firm of Goldberg Katzman, P.C., who also authors the PA Elder, Estate & Fiduciary Law Blog, for bringing this article to my attention.