Ethical Concerns for End of Life Measures with African-Americans

There are few studies that give information about how African-Americans feel about end of life measures. These would include do not resuscitate orders, euthanasia, withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments, advance directives, etc. There are likely innumerable differences in how people feel about death as they feel about life. How one chooses to die is quite personal, especially if the death is a natural death, i.e., disease or the aging process

In an article research project directed by Joshua Hauser, Minority Populations and Advance Directives from a Focus Group Methodology. The author states that there is not a lot of enthusiasm for advance directives and are less likely to be utilized by African-Americans than White patients. The author suggests that minority patients and especially African-Americans may have a problem with autonomy in spite of their having higher rates of morbidity and mortality across many disease states (p, 58). The number is as high a 91% for White patients and 66% for African-Americans. Completed advance directives are less than the desire to have one. Sixty-five percent of White patients wanted comfort care in the last stages of terminal illnesses compared to 50% of African-Americans. Factors such as religious belief, familial obligations and suspicion of the medical establishment played a role just as important as autonomy in decision-making.