Reading futility: Reflections on a bioethical concept

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

Volumn 11, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 127-133

  Joralemon, Donald ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ANTHROPOLOGY; CONFLICT; CONVALESCENCE; COURT; CULTURAL FACTOR; DEATH; DYING; ETHNOLOGY; HEALTH CARE COST; HEALTH ECONOMICS; HEART FUNCTION; HUMAN; LEGAL ASPECT; LUNG FUNCTION; MEDICAL DECISION MAKING; MEDICAL ETHICS; PATIENT RIGHT; PHYSICIAN; PRACTICE GUIDELINE; QUALITY OF LIFE; RESUSCITATION; REVIEW; SEMANTICS;

EID: 0036524532     PISSN: 09631801     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0963180102112047     Document Type: Review

References (34)

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2. Bennett AJ. When is medical treatment "futile"? Issues in Law and Medicine 1993;9:35-45. Mello M, Jenkinson C. Comparison of medical and nursing attitudes to resuscitation and patient autonomy between a British and an American teaching hospital. Social Science and Medicine 1997;46(3):415-24.
3. Bennett AJ. When is medical treatment "futile"? Issues in Law and Medicine 1993;9:35-45. Mello M, Jenkinson C. Comparison of medical and nursing attitudes to resuscitation and patient autonomy between a British and an American teaching hospital. Social Science and Medicine 1997;46(3):415-24.
4. Capron AM. Abandoning a waning life. Hastings Center Report 1995;25(4):24-6. Daar JF. Medical futility and implications for physician autonomy. American Journal of Law and Medicine 1995;21(2-3):221-40. Mordarki DR. Medical futility: has ending life support become the next "pro-choice/right to life" debate? Cleveland State Law Review 1993;41:751-87.
5. Capron AM. Abandoning a waning life. Hastings Center Report 1995;25(4):24-6. Daar JF. Medical futility and implications for physician autonomy. American Journal of Law and Medicine 1995;21(2-3):221-40. Mordarki DR. Medical futility: has ending life support become the next "pro-choice/right to life" debate? Cleveland State Law Review 1993;41:751-87.
6. Capron AM. Abandoning a waning life. Hastings Center Report 1995;25(4):24-6. Daar JF. Medical futility and implications for physician autonomy. American Journal of Law and Medicine 1995;21(2-3):221-40. Mordarki DR. Medical futility: has ending life support become the next "pro-choice/right to life" debate? Cleveland State Law Review 1993;41:751-87.
7. Waisel DB, Truog RD. The cardiopulmonary Resuscitation-Not-Indicated order: futility revisited. Annals of Internal Medicine 1995;122:304-8. See note 1, Rubin 1998:129-31.
8. Taylor RM, Lantos JD. The politics of medical futility. Issues in Law and Medicine 1995;11(1):3-12.
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11. See note 1, Rubin 1998. Rubin makes the case that the distinction in question is actually erroneous because it rests on a false assumption - that some medical judgments are fact based rather than value based.
12. See note 3, Capron 1995, Daar 1995, and Mordarki 1993.
13. Brody H. The physician's role in determining futility. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 1994;42:875-8.
14. Hudson T, Lumsdon K. Are futile-care policies the answer? providers struggle with decisions for patients near the end of life. Hospitals and Health Networks 1994;68(4):26. See note 3 on Virginia and Maryland state law, Daar 1995. See note 1, Rubin 1998, on California Appellate court decisions.
15. Luce JM. Withholding and withdrawal of life support from critically ill patients. Western Journal of Medicine 1997;167(6):411.
16. American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. Medical futility in end-of-life care. JAMA 1999;281(10):937.
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18. See note 4, Waisel, Truog 1995. See note 1, Rubin 1998:129-31.
19. Alpers A, Lo B. When is CPR futile? JAMA 1995;273(2):156-8. See also note 5, Taylor, Lantos 1995.
20. See note 5, Taylor, Lantos 1995.
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22. Asch D, Hansen-Flaschen J, Lanken PN. Decisions to limit or continue life-sustaining treatment by critical care physicians in the United States: conflicts between physicians' practices and patients' wishes. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 1995;151:288-92. Anonymous. To treat or not to treat: a closer look at unilateral decisions [Editorial]. Hospital Ethics 1995;11(3):6-9. American Thoracic Society. Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining therapy. Annals of Internal Medicine 1991;115(6):478-85.
23. Asch D, Hansen-Flaschen J, Lanken PN. Decisions to limit or continue life-sustaining treatment by critical care physicians in the United States: conflicts between physicians' practices and patients' wishes. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 1995;151:288-92. Anonymous. To treat or not to treat: a closer look at unilateral decisions [Editorial]. Hospital Ethics 1995;11(3):6-9. American Thoracic Society. Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining therapy. Annals of Internal Medicine 1991;115(6):478-85.
24. Solomon MZ. How physicians talk about futility: making words mean too many things. Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 1993;21:231-7.
25. Brody H. Transparency: informed consent in primary care. Hastings Center Report 1989;19(5):5-9.
26. Callahan D. Frustrated mastery: the cultural context of death in America. Western Journal of Medicine 1995;163(3):226. It should be noted that some commentators question both this dark view of contemporary death customs and the presumption that dying was better handled in the past. For a summary, see Hockey J. The view from the West: reading the anthropology of non-Western death ritual. In: Howarth G, Jupp PC, eds. Contemporary Issues in the Sociology of Death, Dying, and Disposal. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.
27. Callahan D. Frustrated mastery: the cultural context of death in America. Western Journal of Medicine 1995;163(3):226. It should be noted that some commentators question both this dark view of contemporary death customs and the presumption that dying was better handled in the past. For a summary, see Hockey J. The view from the West: reading the anthropology of non-Western death ritual. In: Howarth G, Jupp PC, eds. Contemporary Issues in the Sociology of Death, Dying, and Disposal. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.
28. Seale C. Constructing Death: The Sociology of Dying and Bereavement. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
29. See note 21, Seale 1998.
30. See note 21, Seale 1998.
31. See note 21, Seale 1998.
32. See note 1, Rubin 1998.
33. Miles SH. Sacred rituals and end-of-life intensive care. Paper presented at conference on Medical Futility: Hope and Common Sense, University of New Mexico, Health Sciences, Albuquerque, October 15, 1999.
34. Hobsbawm E, Ranger T, eds. The Invention of Tradition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983.