Patients without Proxies

Now that the Legal Briefing for Journal of Clinical Ethics 22(3) is on its way, I can turn to complete the in-progress Legal Briefing for Journal of Clinical Ethics 22(4), on patients without proxies.  (The tentative plan is to follow that with one on "Advance Directive Compliance" and then "Adolescent Decision Making.")  This Article reviews the several mechanisms that providers use to make decisions for "unbefriended" patients.  The tentative outline is:

1. What is unbefriended? What is the extent of the problem?


2. Statutes authorizing “close friends” to make health care decision


3. Treatment decision made by guardian


4. Treatment decision made by doctor


5. Treatment decision made by ethics committee


6. Treatment decision made by special committee


7. Preventative measures