Say someone (in the U.S.) without any family at all winds up at a hospital and goes comatose, needing to be on life support. Would they be on life support indefinitely or would anyone have the authority to ‘pull the plug’ so to speak? Sorry it’s kind of a dark question but these are the kinds of things keeping me up at night haha.
In: Biology
In the UK, emergency decisions are a “best interests decision” and the medical professionals use their judgement. Once you are past the emergency phase, you then look to whether the patient has a legally appointed power of attorney or an advanced care plan.
If they do, you treat as per their instructions (within your own clinical judgement). If they don’t, then depending on the decision and whether everyone is is agreement (doctors, next of kin etc) and how life changing the decision is, you may either offer treatment or seek the courts to appoint a best interests advocate. You can also seek advice from ethics committees, however they cannot make decisions for you, only tell you if certain actions are ethical.
In a worst case scenario, where the family disagrees with the legal advocate, doctors and best interests decision and you worry about legal repercussions you can seek a legal ruling from a judge who will say whether a proposed plan of treatment is legal.
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