End-of-life discussions for the primary care obstetrician/gynecologist.
This review of end-of-life decisions centers on the role of the obstetrician/gynecologist in assisting women patients to develop advanced directives that are targeted to unique risks of the pregnant woman; these risks are related to trauma, cancer, and aging; to the special need for lesbian couples to identify health proxies; and to the woman's responsibilities as a caregiver to ensure advance directives and medical proxies for the family. End-of-life decisions are much more stressful when surrogate decision makers do not know in advance what decisions a patient would want made if the patient becomes incapacitated.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, 22908, USA.
James F
JF
Finnerty
Christopher W
CW
Fuerst
Logan B
LB
Karns
JoAnn V
JV
Pinkerton
D000293:Adolescent; D016223:Advance Directives; D000368:Aged; D001926:Brain Death / Q000473:pathology; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006176:Gynecology / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020300:Intracranial Hemorrhages / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000379:methods*; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011247:Pregnancy; D020458:Third-Party Consent