title: An effect of communication on medical decision making: answerability, and the medically induced death of Paul Mills.
abstract: In this essay, the occasion of a medically induced death is examined to illustrate how circumstances surrounding a medically induced death are interpreted through a theory of how social agents, on occasion, respond inappropriately. The essay illustrates and assesses an occasion when a health professional, faced with a medical crisis that was laden with professional, ethical, and even legal considerations, responded in a manner that overlooked all those standards when she injected potassium chloride into her patient, Paul Mills. In the essay, the case is chronicled and the character of the social and communicative mechanism that led to the disaster is given and used to interpret the events.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Relations, Mount Saint Vincent University. doctorwadekenny@hotmail.com
authors.forename: R Wade
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Kenny
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002170:Canada; D003142:Communication; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D010820:Physicians; D017236:Suicide, Assisted / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence