10 - Resolving Conflicts at the End of Life

Summary

Disputes about care for dying patients are rife with emotions. They are also, unfortunately, quite common. In the event that a patient has not made and documented end-of-life decisions in advance and loses the ability to make those decisions, the baton passes to her surrogate decision-maker. When that surrogate elects to go against the tide of family (or professional medical) thinking, or some other conflict flares up, then the worst-case scenario arises. Disputes about the care of the patient move from the bedside to a more formal setting. The incapacitated patient’s very private dying process becomes the focus of an institutional dispute resolution procedure. All of the patient’s intimate struggles – the details of her unfortunate medical plight and perhaps her family’s conflict – become public and open to discussion and debate.