''Cause someday we all die': rhetoric, agency, and the case of the 'patient' preferences worksheet

'Code status' is a prominent feature of end-of-life discussions in U.S. hospitals. This essay analyzes how the rhetoric of code status articulates the terms of end-of-life decision-making in one hospital's 'Patient' Preferences Worksheet. The Worksheet signifies the abandonment of the technological fix as the preferred treatment for moribund patients and the transformation of a previously private moment into a matter of institutional control. Examining the Worksheet's interlocking institutional, technical, and vernacular deathbed rhetoric challenges the dominant bioethical discourse of patient autonomy and suggests a need to supplement this procedurally rational discourse with one of relational integrity. Keywords: Rhetoric of Medicine; Institutional Rhetoric; Euthanasia; End-of-Life; Death and Dying