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The Barnes Case: Taking Difficult Futility Cases Public

Currents in Contemporary Bioethics Column

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Ruth A. Mickelsen ,
Daniel S. Bernstein ,
Mary Faith Marshall  and
Steven H. Miles
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Extract

The recent Minnesota case of In re Emergency Guardianship of Albert Barnes illustrates an emerging class of cases where a dispute between a family proxy and a hospital over “medical futility” requires legal resolution. The case was further complicated by the patient’s spouse who fraudulently claimed to be the patient’s designated health care proxy and who misrepresented the patient’s previously expressed treatment preferences. Barnes demonstrates the degree of significant administrative and institutional support to the health care team, ethics consultants, and futility committees that is required when a futility dispute escalates to the need for judicial resolution. An institutional futility policy, especially one that is endorsed by other regional medical centers and organizations, is an important foundation for a hospital that seeks judicial support in a dispute over medical futility in end of life care.

Type
JLME Column
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , Spring 2013 , pp. 374 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2013

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