Legal question, NOT anything I’m directly involved in.
This question occurred to me while watching “Untold Stories of the ER”, when a patient’s wife and mother were basically at war.
If they’d had conflicting wishes regarding patient care (the patient was unconscious, so not able to make his own decisions), which one would take priority? I would think the wife would be the decision maker, in the absence of any conflicting POA documents, but I’m not certain of that.
Your hypothetical case sounds substantially like the real-life case of Terry Schiavo.
Real brief summary for you young-uns who weren’t around then:
Terry Schiavo suffered massive brain damage from a sudden cardiac arrest, and was brain-dead as a result.
Her husband fought to have the plug pulled. Her parents fought to prevent that, refusing to believe that she was really entirely brain-dead. This went on for 11 years or so (1998-2005).
It got messy: The case became an international cause celebre as a battle between right-to-die people and life-is-sacred people. Politicians (including some doctor-politicians, IIRC) at all levels from local to Congress jumped in with pronouncements and attempts to direct the case via new legislation, and even the Vatican issued pronouncements.
In the end, the husband prevailed and the plug was pulled. Upon autopsy, it was found that there really wasn’t much left in there.
Oops. Arithmetic failure. Seven (7) years.
I saw a similar case when I was a new graduate nurse. Husband was completely brain dead but breathing on his own although he had a trach tube in place. He had pneumonia that would just keep coming back. The wife wanted to withdraw treatment for the pneumonia. The family got involved, it bacame a very bitter thing, the family was Roman Catholic and there were priests and troops of siblings, someone called that woman a “gold digger looking for his money”. It was sad, they were a young couple in their early thirties with three young children under 7. I was away on vacation when the whole thing culminated, but apparently some of the staff were very traumatised by events.
In British Columbia it is very clear. Spouses (including common law, and of course same sex partners, because a spouse is a spouse here) Adult children. Parents. Siblings. Grandparent, grandchild, Other relatives. It gets murkier after that, but there is a ranking. Cite
Wife.
I saw that. The guy in the santa suit, right?
Wife.
Yeah, the guy in the Santa suit with the heart problems.
The wife was a bit wacky, but that mother! Glad Sonny grew a pair and told Smother Dearest to take a hike.