In re Jane Doe
Supreme Court of Georgia
418 S.E.2d 3 (1992)
Scottish Rite Hospital (plaintiff) sought declaratory guidance on whether to honor a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order for terminally ill 13-year-old Jane Doe, whose degenerative neurological disease left her fluctuating between stupor and coma with no hope of recovery; her mother consented to the DNR order recommended by the hospital's bioethics committee, but her father did not. The trial court found the hospital had standing to bring the declaratory action but enjoined it from de-escalating treatment or enforcing any DNR order absent both parents' agreement, and the state (defendant) appealed.
May a do-not-resuscitate order for a terminally ill minor child be enforced by a hospital if one parent consents to the order but the other parent does not?