Guidelines for proceeding with a plan of care when family members have conflicting opinions about the patient’s wishes and the patient does not speak the same language as her physicians.
The conventional quality-adjusted life years approach to resource allocation has greater societal value if it is distributed among many rather than concentrated on a few, assuming that severity of illness is the same.
Organ procurement organization representatives play a pivotal role in serving families of a deceased donor and mediating disagreements about the donation while physicians' involvement in these discussions is minimal.