Futility and the varieties of medical judgment

Theoretical Medicine

Volumn 18, Issue 1-2, 1997, Pages 63-78

  Sulmasy, Daniel P ^a  

^a GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER   (United States)

Author keywords

futility; judgment; medical ethics

Indexed keywords

HUMAN; MEDICAL DECISION MAKING; MEDICAL ETHICS; PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINE; REVIEW;

EID: 0030990937     PISSN: 01679902     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-3364-9_6     Document Type: Review

References (26)

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12. Mill JS. On Liberty. Spitz D, ed. New York: WW Norton, 1975.
13. Pellegrino ED. The relationship of autonomy and integrity in medical ethics. In: Allebeck P, Jansson B, eds. Ethics in Medicine. New York: Raven Press, 1990: 3-22.
14. Personal communication: Pellegrino considers this so rare that he claims never to have personally been involved in a case in which it could be justifiably invoked.
15. Pellegrino ED, Thomasma DC. The anatomy of clinical judgments. In: Pellegrino ED, Thomasma DC. A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981: 119-152.
16. Hume D. A Treatise of Human Nature, Bk. III. Baltimore: Penguin, 1969: 520-521.
17. A Treatise of Human Nature
18. Lonergan BJF. Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1958: 33-69.
19. The fact that there is such a thing as Einsteinian relativity does not detract from the classical nature of such statements or equations. According to the theory of relativity, these statements and equations are invariant over inertial transformation. And since physicians do not treat patients at the speed of light (much to the chagrin of the managers of HMOs), physicians need not bother calculating the Lorentz transformations.
20. Lonergan: 67-68; 299-304.
21. Knauss WA, Wagner DP, et al. The APACHE III prognostic system: risk prediction of hospital mortality for critically ill hospitalized adults. Chest 1991; 100: 1619-1636.
22. This list is an expansion upon themes raised by Longeran: 173-206.
23. See the discussion by Murphy EA. The Logic of Medicine. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976: 117-134.
24. Pellegrino and Thomasma, A Philosophical Basis: 192-220.
25. Pellegrino and Thomasma, For the Patient's Good: 73-91.
26. Hippocrates. The art. In: Jones WHS, trans. Hippocrates II, Loeb Classical Library 148. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1972: 193.