Documents

Free advance directive documents and instructions from Partnership for Caring.

Case	Rasmussen v. Fleming, 154 Ariz. 207, 741 P.2d 674 (1987).
Court	Arizona Supreme Court
Year	1987
Patient (age)	Mildred Rasmussen (64)
Nutrition + hydration	Nasogastric tube
Mental capacity	Organic brain syndrome"; questionable response to stimuli, with no "reasonable possibility" or returning to a cognitive state.
Decision maker(s)	Treating physician (whom out-of-state siblings deferred to)
Setting	Posada Del Sol Nursing Home (Pima County nursing home, Tucson, AZ)
Patient's Wishes	There was no evidence of Rasmussen's wishes about medical treatment in her condition.
Court's Decision	The court found that none of the four possible state interests (preservation of life, prevention of suicide, protection of innocent third parties, and preservation of medical profession's ethical integrity) were predominant in Rasmussen's case and that, if a decision could not be made on the basis of what the patient would have wanted, then a decision could be made by a family member or guardian on the basis of the patient's "best interests."  The court adopted the President's Commission definition of "best interests" as that course of action that "would probably be conceived by a reasonable  person in the patient's circumstances."  The court affirmed the lower court's ruling that Rasmussen not be resuscitated or hospitalized for treatment of any kind (including commencement of artificial nutrition and hydration) beyond the normal care she was receiving in the nursing home.
Outcome	Mildred Rasmussen died of complications following pneumonia while her case was on appeal.
Citation	Partnership for Caring, Inc. (2001), Fact Sheet, Rasmussen v. Fleming