Allowing patients to decide.

Abstract

...allowing physicians to withhold life support and resuscitation because they feel it is futile, no matter how beneficent their intentions, would be an unwarranted step backwards toward the type of paternalism modern American society has turned away from. If we agree that all professional ethics must, in some way, be responsive to the society that profession serves, then in these most critical situations, the final decision must rest with the patient.