Selasa, 25 Mei 2010

Informed Non-dissent

Many have argued that, when medicine really has nothing left to offer, physicians should NOT ask surrogates, in an open-ended manner:  "What would you like to do?" Nor should they ask:  "Do you want us to restart her heart if it stops?"  They should seek only assent to the (if there is one) only appropriate course of action.



Alex Kon has a nice expression for this in 9(4) AJOB:  "informed non-dissent."  The basic notion is that the physician does not "ask."  Instead, she just informs the family of the already-made decision.  This puts the ball in the surrogate's court.  And the surrogate is not asked to and need not make a decision.  But, if she so desires, may veto the declared/presumptive course of action. 

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar