They have been trained from medical school onward to do all within their ability and available resources to cure and prolong their patients' lives. Most discussions regarding death reflect Judeo-Christian values, not the beliefs and values of other ethnic groups. Health care providers, and doctors in particular, are woefully ignorant of cultural differences and how they shape communications with patients and patients' families . Proxy decision making requires synthesizing the patient's diverse values, beliefs, practices, and prior statements to reconstruct what the patient would want under the specific circumstances. The psychological stress of making life or death decisions for a loved one should also not be underestimated.
Surveys show that people are more hesitant to terminate care for a relative than for themselves.
Public Agenda noted that three-quarters of Americans have experienced the death of a family member or close friend in the past five years, and more than half of those are the result of a terminal illness. Public Agenda research indicates that eighty-eight percent of Americans say that if they were terminally ill with six months or less to live, they would prefer to be cared for in their own home or a family member's home. Similar results were obtained in a Gallup national telephone survey of 1,212 adults commissioned by the Nathan Cummings Foundation and Fetzer Institute.