title: End-of-life care decisions: importance of reviewing systems and limitations after 2 recent North American cases.
abstract: Two recent and unfortunate North American cases involving end-of-life treatment highlight the difficulties surrounding medical futility conflicts. As countries have explored the greater influence that patients and their representatives may play on end-of-life treatment decisions, the benefits and struggles involved with such a movement must be appreciated. These 2 cases are used to examine the present systems existing in the United States and Canada for resolving end-of-life decisions, including the difficulty in defining medical futility, the role of medical ethics committees, and controversies involving surrogate decision making.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. burkle.christopher@mayo.edu
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Burkle
authors.forename: Jeffre J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Benson
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002170:Canada; D017028:Caregivers / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000451:nursing; D003657:Decision Making; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000941:ethics; D008297:Male; D018447:Medical Futility / Q000941:ethics*; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000941:ethics*; D020458:Third-Party Consent / Q000941:ethics*; D014481:United States