020 - The Surrogate vs the Advance Care Plan

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This episode presents an "Ethics Roundtable" discussion, focusing on the complex case of a 68-year-old female veteran, LK, whose advanced directive conflicts with her family's wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment. The source explores this ethical dilemma from multiple professional viewpoints, including a trauma surgeon, ethicist, spiritual care provider, physician, lawyer, and social worker. Each perspective offers insights into the challenges of honoring patient autonomy when a designated surrogate is deemed unsuitable and family members disagree with the patient's explicit end-of-life instructions. The central theme revolves around the legal and moral obligations to uphold a patient's advanced directive, especially when a surrogate's cognitive impairment or emotional distress prevents them from making decisions aligned with the patient's stated wishes.

keywords: autonomy, advance directive, surrogate decision making, substituted judgement

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Excellent

I have searched EVERYWHERE for this information, particularly in a podcast style /audio book, Your team did a fantastic job presenting these difficult and extremely important topics! Highly recommend—job very well done!