WHAT treatment should be given when someone slips into a coma if they failed to make their wishes clear in advance? A simple software tool could give the answer.
Bioethicist David Wendler of the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues devised a predictive rule based on data about Americans’ attitudes to medical care. The data revealed that most people would want treatment if there was at least a 1 per cent chance it would allow them to reason, remember and communicate.
When compared with studies in which people were asked how they would want to be…
