Marijuana

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-- even if they fear some of its consequences. With these
advances it has become possible to keep people in a vegetative state
for almost unlimited periods of time. Moreover, there are situations
in which neither the patient nor the family has the ability to bring
such unhappy circumstances to an end. For this reason, advance
directives are becoming increasingly prevalent. In a recent study,
King (1996) reported that approximately 90% of the American public
want advance directives. Both the young and the healthy express at
least as much interest in planning as those older than 65 and those in
fair to poor health (p. 77). According to Lynne (1986) nurses play a
significant role because they attend to the patient continuously and
have an especially strong claim to be allowed the opportunity to be
comfortable with the care plan (p. 216).
Advance directives, also known as living wills, are documents
that a person can complete to ...

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stated the
conditions for the withdraw and withholding of medical treatment.
Fishback also reported 40% of the physicians questioned chose a level
of care different from that requested in advance by patients who
subsequently became incompetent. The physicians interviewed indicated
that they would only follow a patient's advance directive if it was
consistent with their own clinical judgment. The physicians indicated
that they wanted to reserve the right to make clinical judgments about
treatment regardless of a patient's request. In another study, Docker
(1995) reported on a study where 900 patients were studied over a
period of ten years. In very ...

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