Studies show large discrepancies between views of surrogate decision makers and patients

EDITOR,—The articles on the ethics of volunteering children for bone marrow donation raise several issues about proxy or surrogate decision making.1 The central issue concerns the identification of the donor's and family's best interests, when the decision maker must determine the highest benefit from available options.

Although many philosophical questions are involved, there are also empirical questions to be asked. The validity of surrogate decision making rests on the assumption that the decision maker can gauge the …