Issues 150-126

Issue 148: May, Arnd T; Brandenburg, Birgitta: Einstellungen medizinischer Laien zu Behandlungsverfügungen. January 2004

Health-literate and health-competent patients have a right and an obligation to accept or to refuse medical interventions not only actually but also prospectively; this is a widely shared principle in patient-oriented clinical ethics, increasingly also in clinical practice. While a wide majority of people support the concept, utility, and validity of Advance Medical Directives, not very many people actually have one signed and executed. May and Brandenburg present the first empirical study in Germany on the discrepancy between lay person's visions and intention and the meager actual presence and existence of Advance Directives.