Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T02:18:40.322Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Refusing Treatment, Refusing to Talk, and Refusing to Let Go: On Whose Terms Will Death Occur?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Alan Meisel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The wish of many to die with dignity in the face of medical technology, which holds out the hope of continued life but can dehumanize those whom it sustains, is played out countless times in hospitals and nursing homes every day. Each day, hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions must be made about administering or withholding life-sustaining treatment for critically ill patients. Occasionally it spills over into the courtroom and the press, creating the impression that there is a large volume of such litigation. In fact, the number of litigated cases is relatively small–approximately 50 reported cases since the Quinlan case in 1975, and possibly a few times that number in unreported cases.

Betty's case did not wind up in the courts, though it is the kind that could have, given the combination of her physicians not talking to Betty and her family, not listening to them, and not hearing them, and their apparent unwillingness to let Betty die peacefully without aggressive treatment.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , Fall 1989 , pp. 221 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

In re Quinlan, 137 N.J. Super. 227, 348 A.2d 801 (Ch. Div. 1975), rev'd, In re Quinlan, 70 N.J. 10, 355 A.2d 647 (1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 922 (1976).Google Scholar
Many otherwise unreported cases are summarized in Right-To-Die Court Decisions, published by the Society for the Right to Die, 250 West 57th Street, New York, N.Y.Google Scholar
Katz, J., The Silent World of Doctor and Patient (1984); Lidz, C. Meisel, A. Zerubavel, E. Carter, M. Sestak, R. Roth, L., Informed Consent: A Study of Decisionmaking in Psychiatry (1984).Google Scholar
See Meisel, A., The Right to Die, §§ 5.10 (1989).Google Scholar
See Kennedy, John F. Memorial Hosp. v. Bludworth, 432 So. 2d 611, 617 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1983).Google Scholar
“Most Doctors in Poll Would Let the Dying Die,” N. Y. Times, June 5, 1988, at 14, col. 1 (nat'l ed.) (citing American Medical News, June 3, 1988, at 9, col. 1).Google Scholar
In re Jobes, 108 N.J. 394, 529 A.2d 434, 447 n.11 (1987) (citing Newark Star Ledger, Aug. 10, 1986, at 18, col. 4).Google Scholar
In re Jobes, 108 N.J. 394, 529 A.2d at 447 n.11 (citing N.Y. Times, Dec. 2, 1986, at C/10, col. 2/6).Google Scholar
Cruzan v. Harmon, 760 S.W.2d 408 (Mo. 1988).Google Scholar
See, e.g., In re O'Connor, 72 N.Y.2d 517, 531 N.E.2d 607, 534 N.Y.S.2d 886 (1988).Google Scholar
Herbert v. Superior Court, 169 Cal. App. 3d 718, 215 Cal. Rptr. 477 (1985), which grew out of Barber v. Superior Court, 147 Cal. App. 3d 1006, 195 Cal. Rptr. 484 (1983).Google Scholar
See generally Meisel, A., The Right to Die §§ 8.11 (1989).Google Scholar
Id. §§ 9.10-9.13, 9.15-9.21; compare In re Conroy, 98 N.J. 321, 486 A.2d 1209 (1985) with In re O'Connor, 72 N.Y.2d 517, 531 N.E.2d 607, 534 N.Y.S.2d 886 (1988).Google Scholar
Although Florida has a natural death act, see Fla. Stat. Ann. 765.01-.15 (West 1986), it does not contain a provision for appointing a surrogate decision-maker. However, there is no reason why this could not be done under a general durable power of attorney. See Meisel, A., The Right to Die §§ 10.12 (1989).Google Scholar
Barber v. Superior Court, 147 Cal. App. 3d 1006, 195 Cal. Rptr. 484 (1983).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Ross v. Hilltop Rehabilitation Hosp., 676 F. Supp. 1528 (D. Col. 1987); Bartling v. Glendale Adventist Medical Center, 184 Cal. App. 3d 961, 229 Cal. Rptr. 360; Barber v. Superior Court, 147 Cal. App.3d 1006, 195 Cal. Rptr. 484; Spring v. Geriatric Authority, 394 Mass. 274, 475 N.E.2d 727 (1985); McVey v. Englewood Hosp. Ass'n, 216 N.J. Super. 502, 524 A.2d 450 (App. Div.), cert. denied, 108 N.J. 182, 528 A.2d 12 (1987); Estate of Leach v. Shapiro, 13 Ohio App.3d 393, 469 N.E.2d 1047; cf. Morgan v. Olds, 417 N.W.2d 232 (Iowa Ct. App. 1987); Strachan v. John F. Kennedy Memorial Hosp., 109 N.J. 523, 538 A.2d 346 (1988).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Estate of Leach v. Shapiro, 13 Ohio App.3d 393, 469 N.E.2d 1047 (1984).Google Scholar
See American Medical Association, Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, Withholding or Withdrawing Life-Prolonging Medical Treatment 2.18-2.19, at 12–13 (1986), cited in Bouvia v. Superior Court (Glenchur), 179 Cal. App. 3d 1127, 225 Cal. Rptr. 297, 303-04 (1986); Corbett v. D'Alessandro, 487 So.2d 368, 372 n.1 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App.), review denied, 492 So.2d 1331 (Fla. 1986); Brophy v. New England Sinai Hosp., Inc., 398 Mass. 417, 497 N.E.2d 626, 638 (1986); In re Farrell, 108 N.J. 335, 529 A.2d 404, 412 (1987); In re Grant, 109 Wash. 2d 545, 747 P.2d 445, 451 (1987).Google Scholar
See In re President & Dirs. of Georgetown College, 331 F.2d 1000 (D.C. Cir.), aff'd, 331 F.2d 1010 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 377 U.S. 978 (1964); John F. Kennedy Memorial Hosp. v. Heston, 58 N.J. 576, 279 A.2d 670 (1971).Google Scholar
Superintendent of Belchertown State School v. Saikewicz, 373 Mass. 728, 370 N.E.2d 417, 425 (1977).Google Scholar
Id. at 426–27.Google Scholar
See, e.g., A.B. v. C., 124 Misc.2d 672, 477 N.Y.S.2d 281, 283 (1984).Google Scholar
See generally Beauchamp, T. Childress, J., Principles of Biomedical Ethics 269–74 (2d ed. 1983).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Gray v. Romeo, 697 F. Supp. 580 (D.R.I. 1988); In re Morrison, 206 Cal. App. 3d 304, 253 Cal. Rptr. 30 (1988) (‘The issue of whether a court could compel physicians to act contrary to their ethical views is too profound for gratuitous discussion in a dictum.’); Bartling v. Glendale Adventist Medical Center, 184 Cal. App. 3d 961, 229 Cal. Rptr. 360 (1986); In re Jobes, 108 N.J. 394, 529 A.2d 434 (1987); In re Requena, 213 N.J. Super. 443, 517 A.2d 869 (App. Div. 1986).Google Scholar
See In re Jobes, 108 N.J. 394, 529 A.2d at 450 (“The evidence indicates that at this point it would be extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, to find another facility that would accept Mrs. Jobes as a patient. Therefore, to allow the nursing home to discharge Mrs. Jobes if her family does not consent to continued artificial feeding would essentially frustrate Mrs. Jobes' right of self-determination.”)Google Scholar
See, e.g., Custody of a Minor, 385 Mass. 697, 434 N.E.2d 601 (1982) (cardiopulmonary resuscitation); In re Dinnerstein, 6 Mass. App. 466, 380 N.E.2d 134 (1978) (cardiopulmonary resuscitation); In re Visbecr 210 N.J. Super. 527, 510 A.2d 125 (Ch. Div. 1986) (feeding tube).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Rasmussen v. Fleming, 154 Ariz. 207, 741 P.2d 674, 689 n.24 (1987); Bartling v. Superior Court, 163 Cal. App. 3d 186, 209 Cal. Rptr. 220, 225/26 n.4 (1984); Satz v. Perlmutter, 362 So.2d 160, 163 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1978); Brophy v. New England Sinai Hosp., Inc., 398 Mass. 417, 497 N.E.2d at 638; In re Jobes, 108 N.J. 394, 529 A.2d at 444 n.9; In re Grant, 109 Wash. 2d 545, 747 P.2d at 452; but cf. Workmen's Circle Home & Infirmary for the Aged v. Fink, 514 N.Y.S.2d at 896 (permitting withholding of gastrostomy but requiring continuation of intravenous feeding).Google Scholar
President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine & Biomedical & Behavioral Research, Deciding to Forego Life-Sustaining Treatment 73–77 (1983).Google Scholar
Barber v. Superior Court, 147 Cal. App. 3d 1006, 195 Cal. Rptr. 484 (1983).Google Scholar
Gilbert v. State, 487 So.2d 1185 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App.), rev. denied, 494 So.2d 1150 (Fla. 1986).Google Scholar
See Woody, , “Doctor Cleared of Murder Charge in Helping Cancerous Wife to Die,” N. Y. Times, Dec. 2, 1988, at 11, cols. 5-6 (nat'l ed.); Newsweek, Nov. 7, 1988, at 101.Google Scholar
259 JAMA 272 (1988).Google Scholar