The notion of medical futility has quantitative and qualitative roots that offer a practical
approach to its definition and application. Applying these traditions to contemporary medical …

ContextEthics consultations increasingly are being used to resolve conflicts about life-sustaining
interventions, but few studies have reported their outcomes.ObjectiveTo investigate …

ContextMany countries have a shortage of kidneys available for transplantation. Paying
people to donate kidneys is often proposed or justified as a way to benefit recipients by …

Objective To determine the following: a) whether ethics consultations in the intensive care
setting reduce nonbeneficial treatments, defined as days in the intensive care unit (ICU) and …

▪ Objective: To examine the effects of advance directives on medical treatments and on
patient satisfaction and well-being and to determine whether the enhancement of patient …

It probably should not be surprising, in this time of soaring medical costs and proliferating
technology, that an intense debate has arisen over the concept of medical futility. Should …

Six years ago, we proposed a patient benefit-centered definition of medical futility that included
both quantitative and qualitative components. We distinguished between an effect of a …

For critically ill patients and their loved ones, high-quality health care includes the provision
of excellent palliative care. To achieve this goal, the healthcare system needs to identify, …

Too often, patients in American hospitals are subjected to painful, expensive, and futile
treatments because of a physician’s notion of medical duty or a family’s demands. Lawrence J. …

Examines the importance of the context in which medical alternatives are presented to
individuals. In 3 experiments, undergraduates were given information and asked to make choices …