Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:28:18.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Impact of the Cruzan Case on Medical Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

L. Gregory Pawlson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Just over a year has elapsed since the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Cruzan. In the year prior to and since the decision there have been a substantial number of articles in the medical literature that have discussed the possible impacts of the decision on medical care along with suggestions as to how to avoid the more onerous consequences. These analyses are constrained by the lack of any direct measurements, an activity that is itself complicated by other events such as the publicity surrounding episodes of assisted suicide and so-called mercy killing. In this paper we will limit our focus to how the decision in Cruzan is likely to affect the doctor-patient relationship, especially in the critical activities surrounding decision-making about the use of life sustaining treatments.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 19 , Issue 1-2 , Spring Summer 1991 , pp. 69 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Lo, B. Steinbrook, R., “Beyond the Cruzan Case: The U.S. Supreme Court and Medical Practice,” Annals of Internal Medicine 114(10):895–901, 1991; Loewy, E.H., “Weakening the Bonds of Friendship: An Unfortunate Outcome of the Cruzan Decisions,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 39:98–100, 1991; Pearlman, R.A., “Clinical Fallout From the Supreme Court Decision on Nancy Cruzan: Chernobyl or Three Mile Island?” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 39:91–91, 1991; Glover, J.J. Lynn, J., “After Cruzan—The Work To Be Done,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 39:423–424, 1991; Annas, G.J. et al, “Bioethicists' Statement on the U.S. Supreme Court's Cruzan Decision,” New England Journal of Medicine 323:686–687, 1990; Orentlicher, D., “The Right to Die After Cruzan,” Journal of the American Medical Association 264:2444–2446, 1990; Weir, R.F. Gostin, L., “Decisions to Abate Life-Sustaining Treatment for Non-Autonomous Patients: Ethical Standards and Legal Liability for Physicians After Cruzan,” Journal of the American Medical Association 264:1864–1853, 1990; Glover, J.J. Mastroianni, A. Anderson, K.R. Lynn, J., “Abridged Brief as Amicus Curiae of the American Geriatrics Society in Support of the Petitioner, Nancy Beth Cruzan, by Her Parents and co-Guardians Lester L. and Joyce Cruzan,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 38(5):570–576, 1990; Thomasma, D.C., “Surrogate Decisions at Risk—The Cruzan Case,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 38(5):603–604, 1990.Google Scholar
Glover, et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar
Zweibel, N.R. Cassel, C.K., “Treatment Choices at the End of Life: A Comparison of Decisions by Older Patients and Their Physician-Selected Proxies,” The Gerontologist 29(5):615–621, 1989; Uhlmann, R.F. Pearlman, R.A., and Cain, K.C., “Physicians' and Spouses' Predictions of Elderly Patients' Resuscitation Preferences,” Journal of Gerontology 43(5):M115–121, 1988; Starr, T.J. Pearlman, R.A. Uhlmann, R.F., “Quality of Life and Resuscitation Decisions in Elderly Patients,” Journal of General Internal Medicine 1:373–379, 1986.Google Scholar
Glover, et al., supra note 1.Google Scholar
Youngner, S.J., “Who Defines Futility?” Journal of the American Medical Association 260(14):2094–2095, 1988.Google Scholar
Everhart, M.A. Pearlman, R.A., “Stability of Patient Preferences Regarding Life-Sustaining Treatments,” Chest 97:159–164, 1990.Google Scholar
Zweibel, Cassel, Uhlmann, et al, Starr, et al, supra note 3.Google Scholar