> “You all did everything you could, didn’t you?” he asked hopefully. This may have been misunderstood by the author. The patient's loved one may have asked th

> “You all did everything you could, didn’t you?” he asked hopefully. This may have been misunderstood by the author. The patient's loved one may have asked that question in a more general context, to achieve some form of closure. And the answer to this, truthfully, would have been that, yes, they did everything they could - especially in the early stages of the disease when there was still hope of minimizing the damage and/or alleviate suffering. I understand the young doctor's judgement that the patient's loved one was partially to blame for the needless extension of the patient's suffering. It's a hard call to make, and people don't want to be the one who let a loved person go. They're afraid that they'll always be asking themselves the question whether they should really have given up on that person. That's why it's better to have the patient set the policy while they're still able to make that decision, precisely to not put relatives into that position.