Members of Ethical Panels at Hospitals Discuss End-of-Life Decisions

A USA Today article offers the following insight from members of hospital ethics panels.  These quotes confirm the value of disability planning when it comes to end-of-life decisions for indefinitely unconscious patients:

• One Clinical Ethicists asks family members “[w]hat would she have wanted, how do we know this, and how certain are we?”
• Another ethical panel member says “[o]ur job then is to help them get clear and let go, to say, ‘It’s the disease, not you, taking your loved one’s life.’ “

For more insight from ethical panel members, see Lynn Grossman, Matters of life and death, USA Today.