What question did this study set out to answer?

To evaluate the ethical challenges and clinical decision-making strategies when incapacitated patients actively refuse life-sustaining medical interventions.

August 15, 2026The Journal of Clinical Ethics

What to Do When Incapacitated Patients Resist Treatment: Ethical Considerations in Weighing Beneficence Versus Patient Autonomy

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Authors

RLRachel LeMalefant CEClare Einberger KCKendra J. Cooper

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Implication

Case series examines ethical tensions in incapacitated patients resisting life-sustaining treatment, highlighting the need to weigh procedural risks and ethics consultations.

Key Points

To evaluate the ethical challenges and clinical decision-making strategies when incapacitated patients actively refuse life-sustaining medical interventions.
Case series detailing three clinical encounters where incapacitated patients resisted critical medical interventions.
Evaluated the impact of patient demographics, psychiatric comorbidities, intervention urgency and duration, and procedural risks of forced treatment on clinical decisions.
Clinical decision-making requires carefully evaluating the physical and psychological risks of enforcing treatment against patient resistance during surrogate consent discussions.
Static capacity assessments should not be universally applied across rapidly evolving clinical contexts, especially when risk-benefit balances shift dynamically.
Absence of next of kin should not delay emergent interventions capable of restoring patient capacity and enabling future informed discussions.

Cite This Study

LeMalefant et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a80197375c2e31742c85847 https://doi.org/10.1086/741888

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Implication

Case series examines ethical tensions in incapacitated patients resisting life-sustaining treatment, highlighting the need to weigh procedural risks and ethics consultations.

What to Do When Incapacitated Patients Resist Treatment: Ethical Considerations in Weighing Beneficence Versus Patient Autonomy

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

What to Do When Incapacitated Patients Resist Treatment: Ethical Considerations in Weighing Beneficence Versus Patient Autonomy

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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