Exemplary Cases in Clinical Ethics: Commentary on the Case of Mr. A.

 

Jeffrey Spike

 

The Journal of Clinical Ethics 22, no. 3 (Fall 2011): 256-60.

 

A commentary on a case of a man who is left a “high quad” (ventilator dependant as well as quadriplegic) after an accident discusses the following:

•        The right of patients who sustain catastrophic injuries to choose to discontinue life-sustaining treatment

•        The role of capacity assessment in treatment decisions and in ethics consultations

•        The role of advance directives (ADs) for such patients if they lack capacity

•        Whether a do-not-resuscitate or do-not-attempt-resuscitation order should be seen as “a medical order” or an advance directive

•        Some hints about what might be intended when a patient refers to the criterion of having a “meaningful life.”