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Possible Limits to the Surrogate's Role: When a Patient Lacks Decisionmaking Capacity, Is the Surrogate's Role Absolute?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2004

PAUL B. HOFMANN
PAUL B. HOFMANN
Affiliation:
Paul B. Hofmann, Dr. P.H., is with Provenance Health Partners, Moraga, California. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a member of its Leadership Advisory Committee, and the College's consultant on healthcare management ethics
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Extract

Our ethics committee is revising the organization's policy on forgoing life-sustaining treatment. The current policy now includes the statement, “When life-sustaining treatment is forgone, supportive care will be provided to relieve pain and ensure the patient's comfort, unless the patient or surrogate refuses those measures.” Is it reasonable, however, for the surrogate to have the authority to refuse consent for pain medication and/or other supportive care?

Type
ETHICS COMMITTEES AT WORK
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 2004 , pp. 96
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

Question

Our ethics committee is revising the organization's policy on forgoing life-sustaining treatment. The current policy now includes the statement, “When life-sustaining treatment is forgone, supportive care will be provided to relieve pain and ensure the patient's comfort, unless the patient or surrogate refuses those measures.” Is it reasonable, however, for the surrogate to have the authority to refuse consent for pain medication and/or other supportive care?