Although medical-ethics teams are increasingly the arbiters of agonizing health decisions, there are questions about how qualified some of these professionals are to render life-and-death advice. The complex ethical issues arising from new life-prolonging medical technologies are throwing up new challenges, and hospitals face potential legal liability if patients and families feel they haven't been properly counseled or provided with all the information they need to make decisions.
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Life and death: Helping families on the big questions