The Benefits of Informed Non-Dissent when Families have Difficulty Making a Decision

Authors

  • Mila Nortje Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
  • Sajid Haque Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
  • Nico Nortje Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA; Centre for Healthcare Ethics, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada; Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3660-2762

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7202/1094702ar

Keywords:

Informed non-dissent, withdrawing, dignity, harms, family, surrogate decision-maker

Language(s):

English

Abstract

Being a surrogate decision-maker is challenging for many people and having to decide to withdraw life sustaining therapies can be extremely difficult. Helping surrogates to refocus their decisions on informed non-dissent can greatly minimize unnecessary suffering for all involved. This case study describes how dignitary harm was minimized by using the concept of informed non-dissent.

(c) Han Han Li

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Published

2022-12-09

How to Cite

[1]
Nortje M, Haque S, Nortje N. The Benefits of Informed Non-Dissent when Families have Difficulty Making a Decision. Can. J. Bioeth 2022;5:94-5. https://doi.org/10.7202/1094702ar.

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 4 (2022): Open Issue

Section

Case studies

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Mila Nortje, Sajid Haque, Nico Nortjé

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Canadian Journal of Bioethics applies the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License to all its publications. Authors therefore retain copyright of their publication, e.g., they can reuse their publication, link to it on their home page or institutional website, deposit a PDF in a public repository. However, the authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy their publication, so long as the original authors and source are cited.

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