Roles of the family in making health care decisions for incompetent patients

This article is about the roles of the family in making health care decisions for incompetent patients. It argues that complex moral reasons call for the participation of families in decision making for incompetents. However, these moral reasons do not support a single model of the family's role for all incompetents. Rather, they suggest important differences among the roles of family members should play in decision making for different kinds of incompetent patients: formerly competent adults, never competent adults, or infants and children.