Can we prioritise the family's and close friends' opinion in the medical decision-making of withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments?

Introduction > Decisions of withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments of a patient who is no longer able to give his or her consent are subject to a collegial procedure. Unless a health care proxy was previously designated, it is necessary to collect the family or close friends' testimonial. However, the law does not provide any details on how to define the "family'' and the "close friends''. Therefore, our study aims at explaining the notions of "family'' and "close friends'' as well as finding out whether a hierarchy can be elaborated between the various people's opinions, which could be taken into consideration. Methods > A scoping review was conducted in the database of Dalloz and Lexis360 over a 15-year period. Keywords were used as follows: ("family'' OR "close friends'' OR "parent'') AND (" definition'' OR "notion'' OR "principle'' OR "concept''). Results > Twenty-six out of a total of 761 references were finally included. Two criteria helping us to define the "family'' have been found out. Although law does not provide any information on the definition of the "close friends'', we were also able to describe this notion. Six areas of law created a hierarchy between family and relatives. Conclusion > This study does not enable us to highlight a main interlocutor in the family or the relatives of a patient. Law remains unprecise on this matter. Thus, an efficient solution might be either promoting the power of attorney regarding the future protection of the end-of-life or devising circles of policy-makers in a similar way as the ones existing in the United States of America.