Bowker L, Stewart K, Hayes S, Gill M
Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester.
J R Coll Physicians Lond. 1998 Jul-Aug;32(4):351-3.
There is growing public awareness of living wills or advance directives. Patients who wish to make advance directives may approach general practitioners (GPs) for advice. However, many GPs are unaware of the correct legal status of living wills.
Questionnaires were sent to 270 GPs in London and Winchester, asking seven questions about the current legal status of living wills.
Of the 214 GPs (79%) who returned questionnaires, only 104 (49%) were aware that some types of advance directives could carry legal force. Many of the GPs who did know that living wills could be legally binding were unable correctly to answer further questions on the practicalities of the law; for example, 26% were wrong in believing that a lawyer had to draw up a living will, and 13% incorrectly believed that a doctor was legally required to give any treatment requested by a patient in a living will.
Half of the GPs surveyed were unaware that living wills currently have legal force and most of the rest were unaware of important details of the law. More attention needs to be given to the education of doctors in this area.
公众对生前遗嘱或预立医疗指示的意识日益增强。希望制定预立医疗指示的患者可能会向全科医生（GP）寻求建议。然而，许多全科医生并不清楚生前遗嘱的正确法律地位。
向伦敦和温彻斯特的270名全科医生发放问卷，询问七个关于生前遗嘱当前法律地位的问题。
在回复问卷的214名全科医生（79%）中，只有104名（49%）意识到某些类型的预立医疗指示可能具有法律效力。许多知道生前遗嘱具有法律约束力的全科医生无法正确回答关于法律实际操作的进一步问题；例如，26%错误地认为必须由律师起草生前遗嘱，13%错误地认为法律要求医生给予生前遗嘱中患者要求的任何治疗。
接受调查的全科医生中有一半不知道生前遗嘱目前具有法律效力，其余大多数人也不知道该法律的重要细节。在这一领域需要更加重视对医生的教育。
