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Previous Volume 346:1489-1493 May 9, 2002 Number 19 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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Almost all patients want their family members to make decisions about life-sustaining treatment for them if they become incompetent.^1,2 Asking family members to make such decisions is standard clinical practice and has strong ethical justification.^3,4,5 However, dilemmas arise when family members disagree about life-sustaining treatment.

In an important, unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court sharply restricted the authority of a patient's wife, who was also her husband's conservator, to limit life-sustaining interventions in the face of opposition from the patient's mother.⁶ Unlike most incompetent patients for whom decisions must be made about life-sustaining interventions, this patient was conscious and was . . . [Full Text of this Article]

The Wendland Case

The California Supreme Court Ruling

The Legal Context of the Ruling

Concerns about the Ruling

To Whom Does the Ruling Apply?

How Were the Issues Framed?

Responding to the Wendland Ruling

Discussing Surrogate Decision Making with Competent Patients

Attempting to Make Joint Decisions with Families of Incompetent Patients

Trying to Change the Law

Doing What Is Appropriate despite a Possible Legal Risk

References

Related Letters:

The Wendland Case
Bernstein M.
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N Engl J Med 2002; 347:1119, Oct 3, 2002. Correspondence

Delayed Neuropathy and Myelopathy after Organophosphate Intoxication
Chuang C.-C., Lin T.-S., Tsai M.-C.
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N Engl J Med 2002; 347:1119-1121, Oct 3, 2002. Correspondence

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