Table 2 Major historical events in end-of-life care in the USA [11,12]
From: End-of-life considerations in the ICU in Japan: ethical and legal perspectives
Year | Name of case | Issues | Importance |
|---|---|---|---|
1914 | Schloendorff vs. Society of New York Hospitals | Surgical intervention was performed despite withholding of consent by a patient | Competent patients have a right to determine their therapeutic intervention and informed consent is required before the intervention |
1969 | Â | Â | The concept of living will was introduced by Luis Kutner, an Illinois lawyer |
1976 | Karen Quinlan | Withdrawal of mechanical ventilation from a patient in a vegetative state | Competent patients have a right to refuse interventions, and this can be applied by surrogates under the principle of substantial judgment if a patient becomes incompetent |
1976 | California State | - | The Natural Death Act allowed withdrawal of life-sustaining support |
1983 | Barber vs. Superior Court | Withdrawal of mechanical ventilation from a vegetative patient at the request of the patient's family | Surrogates can refuse interventions on behalf of patients, based on the patient's best interests |
1985 | Claire Conroy | The right of a patients' guardian to stop artificial nutrition | Treatment that does not benefit or causes harm to the patient should not be continued based on humanitarian reasons in situations where the patient's wishes for end-of-life care are not known |
1990 | Cruzan vs. the Missouri Department of Health | Withdrawal of care from an incompetent patient who had prior wishes | States can set the level of evidence required to determine the prior wishes of incompetent patients with which surrogate decisions are made. |
1990 | US government | - | The Patient Self-Determination Act obligated medical insurance organization and medical facilities to update the status of advance directives in patient's medical charts on admission to hospice, hospital or nursing home |
2005 | Terri Schiavo case | How to define family and how to proceed with end-of-life care decisions if members of the immediate family are not in agreement | The US District Court in Florida denied the emergency request signed by the US President to reinsert the feeding tube |