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All medical care providers are legally and ethically bound to respect their patients' wishes. However, as patients lose decision-making capacity and approach end of life, their families or surrogates, who are confronted with grief, fear, self-doubt, and/or uncertainty, may ask physicians to provide treatment that contradicts the patients' previously stated wishes. Our work discusses the legal and ethical issues surrounding such requests and provides guidance for clinicians to ethically and compassionately respond-without compromising their professional and moral obligations to their patients., (Copyright © 2020 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Language and cultural barriers can impede communication between patients and clinicians, exacerbating health inequity. Additional complications can arise when family members, intending to protect their loved ones, ask clinicians to lie or not disclose to patients their diagnoses, prognoses, or intervention options. Clinicians must express respect for patients' and families' cultural, religious, and social norms regarding health care decision making, but they might also be ethically troubled by some decisions' effects on patients' health outcomes. This article suggests strategies for clinicians trying to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers to equitable patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]