Withdrawing life support: a legal assessment and a possible response.
How to deal with terminally ill incompetent patients is a painful dilemma for for hospital medical staffs and administrators, not to mention families of these patients. Case law on the removal of life support is emerging, and physicians and administrators may find the hospital-based ethics committee one means to guide them in making difficult decisions without involving the courts.
D004991:Ethics, Institutional; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011367:Professional Staff Committees; D014481:United States