Advance directives, substituted judgment, and the best-interest standard all have limitations that constrain their usefulness in making medical decisions for patients who cannot choose for themselves.
The practice of banking sperm from adolescents about to undergo chemotherapy is not universal, which lends support to the argument that parental consent be required for the intervention.
Advance directives do not always resolve questions about the best care for patients who no longer have decision-making capacity; physicians and patient surrogates can take alternative approaches to arrive at the best care decision.
Kym Ahrens, MD, MPH, F. Bruder Stapleton, MD, and Maneesh Batra, MD, MPH
The University of Washington Pediatric Residency Program Experience in Global Health and Community Health and Advocacy embodies essential principles of successful short-term rotations from academic medical centers to resource-limited countries.
The traditional triple threat model of academic physician careers can help global health researchers balance research commitments and the duty to care.
Paula Tironi, JD, LLM and Monique M. Karaganis, MD
While parents often have legal authority to make decisions regarding pediatric palliative care, federal and state statutory and case laws, like CAPTA, impose significant restrictions on that authority.