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"Let Me Live the Way I Want to Live, Until I Can't"

Amy J. Markowitz, JD; Michael W. Rabow, MD

JAMA. 2004;291:492.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

On August 13, 2003,¹ authors Peter A. Selwyn, MD, MPH, and Marshall Forstein, MD, introduced Claude, a 33-year-old African American man with advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, who had been diagnosed in 1992. Claude was under the care of Dr K, who felt stymied by the fact that Claude's HIV viral load remained elevated despite ongoing antiretroviral therapy. His complicated and debilitating course included multiple opportunistic infections, as well as rectal carcinoma, scrotal carcinoma in situ, peripheral neuropathy, and chronic wasting syndrome. He lived at home with his aunt, Ms D, who was his primary caregiver. Although his clinical course was often dramatic and although he had enrolled and disenrolled in hospice on 3 separate occasions, his persistent will to live ultimately charted the course of ongoing therapies taken by his physician and family.

As the authors note, although Claude is . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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