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Legal Considerations in Decisions to Withhold or Withdraw Life Sustaining Treatment

Natalie McSherry presented a paper to the Barristers Law Club on January 31, 2012 at the Hopkins Club entitled “Legal Considerations in Decisions to Withhold or Withdraw Life Sustaining Treatment.” The paper covered the development of Maryland law from 1985 to the present relating to end-of-life decisions, and the Maryland Health Care Decisions Act, which governs that area of law. Topics included advance directives, decisions by surrogates in the absence of advance directives, questions of medical futility and other issues that arrive for patients with terminal illnesses, end-stage conditions, and patients in a persistent vegetative state.