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Bringing Clarity to the Futility Debate: Don't Use the Wrong Cases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 1998

HOWARD BRODY
HOWARD BRODY
Affiliation:
Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences and Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
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Abstract

Among those who criticize the concept of ‘medical futility,’ a common refrain is that we really have no idea what futility means. For example, physicians seem to disagree on whether a treatment being futile means that it has a less than 5% chance of working or a 20% chance of working. If the concept is so unclear, then it seems a thin reed upon which to base a momentous ethical decision—namely, that the physician's judgment should be allowed to override the wishes of the competent patient or the patient's duly appointed surrogate.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , July 1998 , pp. 269 - 273
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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