Advance directives: do they work?
Advance directives have been widely endorsed, and empiric work has taken place that can aid clinicians in the appropriate use of validated documents. This report reviews philosophic and methodologic issues and offers practical illustrations. Despite the evidence that advance directives can work, there are serious barriers to their actual use. Therefore, these barriers are evaluated and potential solutions suggested.
Emanuel
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Division of Medical Ethics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
D024362:Advance Directive Adherence; D016223:Advance Directives / Q000639:trends; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results