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Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

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Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
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ACS Brief

Maternalism Can Aid in Resolving Difficult End-of-Life Decisions

September 9, 2025

End-of-life care and decision-making can be difficult for both patients and surgeons, but the concept of maternalism—which allows a physician to recommend actions in a patient’s best interest and is based on a patient’s values and preferences—may help to navigate these challenging times. In this video, Dr. Leigh Vaughan describes her recent JACS article, wherein authors describe how using team-based care and careful patient communication inherent to maternalism helped resolve a clinical quandary.