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Patient Confidentiality and the Surrogate's Right to Know

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Lynn A. Jansen  and
Lainie Friedman Ross
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Extract

Physicians treating newly incapacitated patients often must navigate surrogate decision-makers through a difficult course of treatment decisions. Such a process can be complex. Physicians must not only explain the medical facts and prognosis to the surrogate, but also attempt to ensure that the surrogate arrives at decisions that are consistent with the patient's own values and wishes. Where these values and wishes are unknown, physicians must help surrogates make decisions that reflect the patient's best interests.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , Summer 2000 , pp. 137 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2000

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