Examining the Root Cause of Surrogate Conflicts in the Intensive Care Unit and General Wards

Family refusals of registered consents: the disruption of organ donation by double‐standard surrogate decision‐making

“…Patients who have decided and communicated in their advance directive not to have these interventions could be forced to endure them (or vice versa ) if double‐standard surrogate decision‐making trickles down to live patient care. These types of surrogate–patient conflicts are common in both general hospital wards as well as intensive care units 13 …”

“…These types of surrogate-patient conflicts are common in both general hospital wards as well as intensive care units. 13 Families unable or unwilling to face the grief of their relative's illness should not be allowed to take a decision-making path that relieves their distress by shifting it to another (vulnerable) party. In other words, treatment plans that cause distress for families might give relief of suffering to patients; but if families aim to avoid the distress by selecting a comfortable plan for themselves, this could in fact deliver a plan of suffering to the patient (e.g.…”