ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of John, who is a 54-year-old man who had surgery for a carcinoma of the colon. He has been deteriorating steadily and is now reaching the end stages of his disease. The clinical team agree that he is within days of death as a result of his cancer. The doctor on the team feels that John is not for resuscitation and is adamant that John's wife must be asked for permission not to resuscitate. In the terminal stage of progressive conditions such as cancer or motor neurone disease, death is an expected, inevitable result of the underlying disease. In this situation, the clinical team can be 'as certain as it can be' that resuscitation would fail. When one or two members of the team hold a minority view, the rest of the team should respect their view and be prepared to review the situation after a time period agreed by the whole team.
