JAMA has editorialized concerning Futile Care Theory, aka medical futility. The idea is that when a doctor or bioethics committee believes that wanted life-sustaining treatment isn’t worth the suffering or cost, they...
Read MoreI have often argued against Futile Care Theory that allows doctors and/or hospital bioethics committees to force desperately ill patients off wanted life-sustaining treatment. I find the whole approach very dangerous because it...
Read MoreThis is an important issue that has generally been ignored in the popular media about assisted suicide and the practice of doctors refusing wanted life-sustaining treatment. Physicians who legally cooperate in patient suicides...
Read MoreA medical system deeply dedicated to Hippocratic values of patient equality and uninfected by the “quality of life” virus would not need laws prohibiting discrimination against the sickest and most seriously disabled...
Read MoreBioethics pushed personal autonomy to the forefront of medical decision making, helping forge the legal right to say no to unwanted life-extending care. Today, if a person doesn’t want to be in an ICU or to be otherwise...
Read MoreGood grief! The state with the worst futile care law in the nation now has legislation pending that would enable doctors to place DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) orders on a patient’s chart without notice or permission —...
Read MoreFutile Care Theory claims that doctors and hospital bioethics committees should be empowered to refuse wanted life-sustaining treatment based on their beliefs that the patient’s life is not worth living or too expensive to...
Read MoreFutile Care Theory, aka medical futility, is a bioethical theory under which doctors/ hospital bioethics committees are empowered to withdraw wanted life-sustaining treatment based on their perceptions of the patient’s...
Read MorePatients are not individuals in centralized healthcare systems. Rather, they become members of checklist categories on bureaucratic check lists. How else explain doctors putting nearly one-half of patients on the Liverpool Care...
Read MoreFutile Care Theory (aka medical futility) permits doctors and/or hospital bioethics committees to unilaterally withdraw wanted life-sustaining treatment based on cost and/or quality of life. This isn’t because the...
Read MoreTexas has an awful futile care law. It permits hospital bioethics committees to impose members/doctors’ values that a patient’s life is not worth living based on quality of life. A story just out shows the injustice...
Read MoreThe issue of when to cease life-supporting medical treatment — and whether it should be done over the objections of patients/families (Futile Care Theory) — are among the most important bioethical issues we face...
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