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Chapter 12 - When the Patient Refuses to Eat

from Part III - Diversity of Desires and Limits of Liberty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2025

Paul J. Ford
Affiliation:
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland
Denise M. Dudzinski
Affiliation:
University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
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Summary

In this chapter of Complex Ethics Consultations: Cases that Haunt Us, the authors describe the case of a 55-year-old patient with severe cachexia and malnutrition with a long history of anorexia. Her family helps with ADLs. She was admitted of her own accord for abdominal pain. She declines psychiatric evaluation. She lacked decisional capacity for treatments related to disordered eating like nasogastric feeding. Her husband was always persuaded by his wife at the last minute. The authors are haunted by the question of whether she had an underlying psychiatric issue that was unaddressed, that her husband was not acting in her best interest, and there was insufficient assistance from the psychiatry service.

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Chapter
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Complex Ethics Consultations
Cases that Haunt Us
, pp. 96 - 101
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Bouvia v Superior Court (Glenchur), 179 Cal. App. 3d 1127, 225 Cal. Rptr. 297 (Ct. App. 1986), review denied (Cal. June 5, 1986).Google Scholar

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