Category: Substitute Decision-Making

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  • 10. Case: At a Crossroads…

    Sandra Livingstone, age 45, was admitted to the hospital with diffuse ischemic encephalopathy – a very significant, global brain injury – secondary to sustaining a massive stroke at home. It is now ten months after her admission. Ms. Livingstone is on an acute internal medicine unit where she has been living since her discharge from…

    View Case Study: 10. Case: At a Crossroads…

  • 9. Case: Right to Treatment

    A 54-year-old male patient has been treated for cancer for 2 years, but his illness has not responded to the major lines of treatment. He has been admitted to hospital with worsening nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and failure to thrive. A CT scan showed progression of disease as evidenced by new ascites along with…

    View Case Study: 9. Case: Right to Treatment

  • 8. Case: Who Should Decide?

    This case concerns a 35-year-old developmentally delayed female patient (functional age about 5 years old); her mother is her legal guardian. The patient tested positive for a BRCA gene mutation. Her mother is concerned that her daughter may develop ovarian cancer and wants her to have preventive surgery. Her physician does not believe this is…

    View Case Study: 8. Case: Who Should Decide?

  • 6. Case: To Feed or Not to Feed?

    You receive a call on the ethics line about a patient’s relative (next-of-kin and legal decision-maker) force-feeding her sister who is a patient on the unit (pushing food into the patient’s mouth and then holding her mouth closed, pinching her nose, etc. until she swallows). Apparently, this was not an uncommon approach to getting her…

    View Case Study: 6. Case: To Feed or Not to Feed?

  • 2. Case: Treatment and/or Termination? Tough Choices

    Melanie is a 21 year old who was recently involuntarily committed after she started a serious fight at a local shelter, thinking that one of the leaders was trying to steal her favourite T-shirt. Melanie has schizophrenia and is well-known to both the police and mental health care providers. She has been living on and…

    View Case Study: 2. Case: Treatment and/or Termination? Tough Choices

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