Legal Considerations for Critically Ill and Dying Patients Who Lack Surrogate Decision Makers | HMC Ethics April Forum

This presentation will discuss the legal framework that guides processes for ensuring that a patient’s interests are represented when determining whether to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment.

OBJECTIVES:

  1. Review Washington’s legal requirements for withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.
  2. Recognize when a guardianship appointment or court authorization is necessary for withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment.

SPEAKERS:

Legal Considerations for Critically Ill and Dying Patients Who Lack Surrogate Decision Makers | HMC Ethics April Forum

Poster for the UW Medicine Harborview Ethics Forum titled “Legal Considerations for Critically Ill and Dying Patients Who Lack Surrogate Decision Makers,” scheduled for Wednesday, April 9th from 12 to 1 p.m. via Zoom. The presentation covers Washington’s legal requirements for withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment & recognizing when a guardianship appointment or court authorization is necessary. Panelists include Dionne Williams, John Gibson, Michelle Nelson, Amy Spitzer, & Mackenzie Wieburg.

Please join us on Wednesday, April 9th with an expert-led panel discussion.

This presentation will discuss the legal framework that guides processes for ensuring that a patient’s interests are represented when determining whether to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment.

Emergent Personhood Symposium – April 29–30, 2025

University of Ghana International Symposium Flyer

 

This interdisciplinary symposium, co-sponsored by the University of Ghana’s Department of Philosophy & Classics and the University of Washington’s Department of Bioethics & Humanities, will bring together scholars from Africa and the West to examine how personhood emerges and its implications for the moral status of humans and nonhumans, including AI, animals and nature.

Drs. Nancy Jecker and Caesar Atuire Publish New Book: What Is a Person?: Untapped Insights from Africa

"What Is a Person?: Untapped Insights from Africa" book cover

The Department of Bioethics and Humanities is pleased to share that faculty member Dr. Nancy Jecker and affiliate faculty member Dr. Caesar Atuire have a new book with Oxford University Press: What Is a Person?: Untapped Insights from Africa.

Kidney Transplant Candidate Selection: Compliance, Adherence, and Person-Centeredness | HMC Ethics March Forum

Please join us on Wednesday, March 12th with Dr. Catherine Butler, MD MA.

This presentation will relate how patients with kidney failure are required to demonstrate adherence to clinical recommendations as a criterion for kidney transplant candidacy. During, she will examine implications of this requirement for person-centered and equitable care.