Table 2.

Individual and family responsibility in the context of advance directives

Subject (in different roles)	Object (seen as morally relevant)	Instance (norm-proofing)	Moral-relevant standard	Temporal direction	Consequences	Time frame
Citizens as potential patient	Self	Conscience	Virtue: to be considerate	Retrospective_negative	Dependency (on physician and family) if no AD, or even blame	For the time of being competent, but disputable how long in advance is valid
	Relatives			Prospective_positive	Self-determined end of life
Family	Patient	Law (as attorney)	Respect for autonomy/care	Prospective_negative	Only in life-ending cases: loss of decision power (to court)	In case of patient’s loss of competence