Nancy Cruzan and the Withhold Versus Withdraw Dilemma

Physicians' decisions to withhold and withdraw life-sustaining treatment.

BACKGROUND Few data are available about physicians' decisions in regard to withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining measures. We therefore studied internists' views on this subject. METHODS We surveyed 1000 generalist and subspecialist internists about their views on withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. Thirty-two hypothetical cases were included. The effect of the demograp...

Euthanasia and the right to die: Nancy Cruzan and New Mexico.

At about 1:00 a.m. on January 11, 1983 a recently married thirtyyear-old employee of the State of Missouri, Nancy Cruzan, was involved in a one-car accident in Jasper County, Missouri.' The car was overturned and she was found about 35 feet from the car. Police arrived five or six minutes after being dispatched to the scene of the accident; paramedics arrived about nine minutes after the police...

Futile or fruitful: the charter and the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment.

A defence of the requirement to seek consent to withhold and withdraw futile treatments.

Futility assessments, which are unavoidable in end-of-life settings, need to be procedurally fair. This necessitates communication between health professionals and substitute decisionmakers regarding the decision to define treatments as futile. The common law test for whether treatment should be withheld or withdrawn is the best interests test. A futile treatment is not in any patient's best in...

Physician willingness to withhold tube feeding after Cruzan: an empirical study.