IN HOSPITALS ACROSS THE U.S., DOCTORS ignore, or are unaware of, the last wishes of dying patients, needlessly prolonging their pain and suffering. That is the disturbing conclusion of a massive study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "There is a tragic mismatch between the health care many seriously ill people want and what they get," says the University of Virginia's Dr. William Knaus, co-director of the study. "We don't know when or how to stop."
In the initial phase of the study, which was conducted with a $28 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson...