How can hospital futility policies contribute to establishing standards of practice?

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

Volumn 9, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 524-531

  Schneiderman, Lawrence J ^a   Capron, Alexander Morgan ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0034258114     PISSN: 09631801     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0963180100904110     Document Type: Article

References (24)

1. 1. In re Baby "K," 16 F.3d 590 (4th Cir.), cert.denied, 513 U.S. 825 (1994).
2. 2. Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), 42 U.S.C.A. #139dd (West 1992).
3. 3. See note 1.
4. 4. Capron A. Medical futility: strike two. Hastings Center Report 1994;24(5):42-3.
5. 5. Bryan v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 95 F.3d 349 (4th Cir. 1996). The court affirmed the trial court's dismissal of Bryan's suit, which had been brought in federal court under EMTALA, yet recognized that a state tort law action might lie. Such reprehensible disregard for one's patient as Bryan hypothesizes would not constitute the "dumping" at which EMTALA aims but the well established tort of abandonment, which the states may expand or constrict as they deem just but which Congress evidenced no desire to federalize. Presumptively aware of this feature of state tort law, Congress did not address a hypothetical problem that was not before it but addressed a national scandal that was: emergency rooms turning away patients at the door for inability to pay or other similar reasons. Id at 352.
6. 6. Kolata G. Court ruling limits rights of patients: care deemed futile may be withheld. New York Times 1995;22 Apr:6.
7. 7. Capron A. Abandoning a waning life. Hastings Center Report 1995;25(4):24-6.
8. 8. Schneiderman LJ, Manning S. The Baby K case: a search for the elusive standard of medical care. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 1997;6:9-18.
9. 9. Schneiderman LJ, Jecker NS. Futility in practice. Archives of Internal Medicine 1993;153:437-41.
10. 10. Annas GJ. Asking the courts to set the standard of emergency care: the case of Baby K. New England Journal of Medicine 1994;330:1542-5.
11. 11. Yankelovich D. Coming to Public Judgment: Making Democracy Work in a Complex World. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1991.
12. 12. Halevy A, Brody BA. A multi-institution collaborative policy on medical futility. JAMA 1996;276:571-4.
13. 13. Murphy DJ, Barbour E. GUIDe (Guidelines for the Use of Intensive Care in Denver): a community effort to define futile and inappropriate care. New Horizons 1994;2:326-31.
14. 14. Bay Area Network of Ethics Committees (BANEC) Nonbeneficial Treatment Working Group. Nonbeneficial or futile medical treatment: conflict resolution guidelines for the San Francisco Bay Area. Western Journal of Medicine 1999:170:287-90.
15. 15. American Medical Association, Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. Code of Medical Ethics: Current Opinions with Annotations. Chicago: American Medical Association, #2.037 (adopted Dec. 1996. 1998:10.
16. 16. See note 14, BANEC Nonbeneficial Treatment Working Group 1999.
17. 17. Solomon MZ, O'Donnell L, Jennings B, et al. Decisions near the end of life: professional views of life-sustaining treatments. American Journal of Public Health 1993;82:14-25.
18. 18. Wilkinson JM. Moral distress in nursing practice: experience and effect. Nurse Forum 1987-88; 23:16-28.
19. 19. American Medical Association, Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. Code of Medical Ethics: Current Opinions with Annotations. Chicago: American Medical Association, #2.035 (issued June 1994).
20. 20. American Medical Association, Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. Medical futility in end-of-life care. JAMA 1999;281:937-41.
21. 21. See note 11, Yankelovich 1991.
22. 22. National Center for State Courts, Coordinating Council on Life-Sustaining Medical Treatment Decision Making by the Courts. Guidelines for State Court Decision Making in Life-Sustaining Medical Treatment Cases 2nd ed. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1993.
23. 23. Alpers A. Respect for patients should dominate health care decisions. Western Journal of Medicine 1999;170:291-2.
24. 24. Schneiderman LJ, Jecker NS. Wrong Medicine: Doctors, Patients, and Futile Treatment. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.