Decision making at the end of life has been at the heart of many ethical-dilemma discussions and legal cases in bioethics in the past 25 years. Because nurses are legally responsible and accountable for the healthcare that patients and their families receive nurses can no longer afford to view the questions of ethics and law as solely an academic exercise, nor should ethical and legal considerations of today's healthcare issues remain solely in the purview of the organization's ethics committee or risk-management departments. Nurses must understand the basic concepts of ethical decision making and know the relevant laws that address the current controversies to ensure that individual and societal rights and values are protected.