Journal of palliative medicine
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While following patients' advance directives (ADs) is legally binding, French physicians in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) perceive them as complicating their decision. Decision making and ICU residents benefit from personalizing the dying process. In France, ADs can include personal information. ⋯ Personalizing ADs of an unknown patient leads ICU residents to be less prone to follow them, but does not affect whether or not they decide to consult the patient's family. Hence, promoting shared decision making by including the incapacitated patients' families in treatment decisions is a major challenge, especially in countries such as France, where ADs are legally binding.