Family Decision Making on Trial

Abstract

The highest courts in New York State and Missouri have made it more difficult to withhold life-sustaining treatment from incompetent patients. In the case of Mary O'Connor, the New York court ruled in October 1988 that such treatment must be given unless there is unequivocal evidence that the patient would have chosen to refuse it.¹ This decision set a standard of proof so strict that few patients are likely to satisfy it. In the case of Nancy Cruzan, the Missouri court declared the following month that the state had an "unqualified" interest in prolonging life.² These rulings rejected a medical, . . .