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Previous Volume 328:1200-1201 April 22, 1993 Number 16 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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To the Editor: With regard to the article by Menikoff et al. on health care surrogate laws (Oct. 15 issue)¹: I am the clinical ethicist at a 400-bed, university-affiliated, urban hospital in Illinois. In the 12 months after the state's Health Care Surrogate Act became law, the act was instrumental in decisions to end the lives of 12 "qualifying" patients in our hospital and nearby nursing homes. Mechanical ventilation or dialysis was terminated in eight patients who either were terminally ill with cancer or AIDS or were unconscious after cardiopulmonary arrest or a head injury. Artificial nutrition was withheld . . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Kapp, M. B. (1999). Commentary: Anxieties as a Legal Impediment to the Doctor-Proxy Relationship. J Law Med Ethics 27: 69-73