Predictions of poor prognosis for critically ill patients may become self-fulfilling if life-
sustaining treatment or resuscitation is subsequently withheld on the basis of that prediction …

Filled with critically ill patients, equipped with the sophisticated and expensive technologies
that are the miracles of modern medicine, American intensive care units are testing grounds …

Assessing the appropriateness of continuing life support is a difficult task for intensive care
unit staff. Part of this difficulty relates to prognostic uncertainty and the varying reliability of …

Objective—To determine the objectivity, consistency and professional unanimity in the
initiation, continuation and withdrawal of life-prolonging procedures in intensive care–to …

Increasingly in the United States and other countries, medical decisions, including those at
the end of life, are made using a shared decision-making model. Under this model …

The right to refuse medical intervention is well established, but it remains unclear how best
to respect and exercise this right in life support. Contemporary ethical guidelines for critical …

A self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in neuroprognostication occurs when a patient in coma is
predicted to have a poor outcome, and life-sustaining treatment is withdrawn on the basis of …

Although autonomy is clearly still the paradigm in bioethics, there is increasing concern over
its value and feasibility. In agreeing with those concerns, I argue that autonomy is not just a …

At the end of the week, the team sat down with her and suggested that all treatment be
stopped. Many times in the past her mother had told her,“If there is no hope, let go,” so Sarah …

I am grateful to Karen Phillips for her help and encouragement in the early stages of getting
this book off the ground; her faith in the project was very much appreciated. Thanks are also …