Planning for Uncertainty

David John Doukas, M.D., is the William Ray Moore Endowed Chair of Family Medicine and Medical Humanism, professor and chief of the Division of Medical Humanism and Ethics in the Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine, and a member of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy, and Law at the University of Louisville. He is also the chair of the University of Louisville Health Care Ethics Committee. William Reichel, M.D., is an affiliated scholar at the Center for Clinical Bioethics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: What Every Person Needs to Know1. What the Patient Self-Determination Act Means to You2. When Is Treatment Beneficial and When Is It Not Beneficial?3. How Ethical Principles Affect Health Care Decisions4. The Value of Values5. How Advance Directives Work6. The Values History: Defining Your Health Care Values7. You, Your Family, and Health Care Decisions: Choosing a Proxy8. Signing Advance DirectivesAppendixLinks to Advance Directive Forms by StateOther Useful LinksMy Advance Directives for Future Medical TreatmentThe Values HistoryAdvance Directive in Brief CardIndex

Valuable resource. Columbia College Today 2007 A practical guide to help individuals make end-of-life decisions and communicate them to healthcare providers, family members, and other loved ones. UU World 2008 This practical guide helps people navigate the important but often intimidating process of thinking about, and planning for, an uncertain future. Exceptional Parent 2008 Doukas and Reichel achieve two things rarely seen in books geared toward the general public. First, they are uncommonly forthright... The second noteworthy achievement of Planning for Uncertainty is its compatibility with the family physician's worldview. -- David Satin, MD Family Medicine 2008 Planning for Uncertainty contacts much helpful information about advance directives and advance care planning. -- Ellen W. Bernal Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 2008