Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T14:46:07.079Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Response to “Reading Futility: Reflections on a Bioethical Concept” by Donald Joralemon (CQ Vol 11, No 2), The Rise and Fall of Death: The Plateau of Futility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2003

Lawrence J. Schneiderman ,
Holly Teetzel  and
Todd Gilmer
Lawrence J. Schneiderman
Affiliation:
Lawrence J. Schneiderman, M.D., is Professor in the Departments of Family and Preventive Medicine and Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego
Holly Teetzel
Affiliation:
Holly Teetzel, M.A., is Research Associate in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, where she has participated in several end-of-life studies
Todd Gilmer
Affiliation:
Todd Gilmer, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Researchers tracking social trends have discovered a remarkable labor-saving device called the computer. They sit down before the instrument, call up a search engine, enter a key word that they believe represents the trend, and count the number of articles aroused by that key word. They track these numbers over a period of time and even graph them. Those who dislike a certain concept are happy to report the concept's rise and fall. Such has occurred with two articles, one of which appeared in CQ, reporting the rise and fall of medical futility. We are impressed with the power of this research methodology, which seems capable of eliminating concepts, even when our own more labor-intensive yet apparently less perceptive daily experience finds evidence of their existence all around us.

Type
RESPONSES AND DIALOGUE
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , July 2003 , pp. 308 - 309
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)