A sixty-five-year-old patient has been diagnosed with an illness that is certain to kill him within the next ten years. He wishes to try a new experimental procedure to cure his illness. The procedure has shown great success thus far in clinical trials but has a 1-in-5 mortality rate. The patient's wife strongly opposes the procedure. What would you do as the patient's physician?

The first thing that I would do as a physician would be to further research this experimental treatment in order to understand it for the benefit of my patient. This would involve reading the results from clinical trials and getting a great grasp of the procedure's successes and risks. If needed, I would contact the scientists who have developed the procedure along with any of my colleagues who may be of help. I would gather this information and ... (+ 205 words)