Is Futility a Futile Concept?

Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 20 (2):123-144 (1995)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper distinguishes four major types of futility (physiological, imminent demise, lethal condition, and qualitative) that have been advocated in the literature either in a patient dependent or a patient independent fashion. It proposes five criteria (precision, prospective, social acceptability, significant number, and non-agreement) that any definition of futility must satisfy if it is to serve as the basis for unilaterally limiting futile care. It then argues that none of the definitions that have been advocated meet the criteria, primarily because their proponents have not paid sufficient attention to the problematic nature of the data supporting the use of their definitions

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,388

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-08-24

Downloads
110 (#199,581)

6 months
12 (#218,371)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Baruch Brody
PhD: Princeton University; Last affiliation: Rice University

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references