Medical Futility: And the Evaluation of Life-Sustaining Interventions

ISBN-13: 9780521568777 / Angielski / Miękka / 1997 / 220 str.

Marjorie B. Zucker; Marjorie B. Zucker; Howard D. Zucker

Opis

This volume surveys the clinical, ethical, religious, legal, economic, and personal dimensions of decision making in situations when the choice is either to extend costly medical treatment of uncertain effectiveness, or to terminate treatment, thereby ending the patient's life. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines offer perspectives on issues ranging from the definition of medical futility to the implications for care in various clinical settings, including intensive care, neonatal and pediatric practice and nursing homes. An important contribution toward the more humane and consistent handling of these situations, Medical Futility will be obligatory reading for health care professionals, students, and scholars concerned with ethical standards in medical care.

Recenzje

' … a compact treatment of a complex subject … a very accessible book, clearly written and easy to read … a good introduction … a good, basic introduction to an important topic in bioethics.' The New England Journal of Medicine

Spis treści

Preface; Foreword Alexander Morgan Capron; Contributors; 1. Medical futility: a useful concept? Howard Brody; 2. Death with dignity Patricia Brophy; 3. Physicians and medical futility: experience in the critical care setting Harry S. Rafkin and Thomas Rainey; 4. Physicians and medical futility: experience in the setting of general medical care Norton Spritz; 5. Futility issues in pediatrics Joel E. Frader and Jon Watchko; 6. Medical futility: a nusing home perspective Ellen Knapik Bartoldus; 7. Alternative medicine and medical futility Joseph J. Jacobs; 8. How culture and religion affect attitudes toward medical futility Mary F. Morrison and Sarah Gelbach DeMichele; 9. When religious views and medical judgements conflict: civic polity and the social good John J. Paris and Mark Poorman; 10. Conflict resolution: experience of consultation-liaison psychiatrists James J. Strain, Stephen L. Snyder and Martin Drooker; 11. Ethics committees and end of life decision making Alice Herb and Eliot J. Lazar; 12. The economics of futile interventions Donald J. Murphy; 13. Medical futility: a legal perspective William Prip and Anna Moretti; 14. Professional and public community projects for developing medical futility guidelines Linda Johnson and Robert Lyman Potter; 15. Community futility policies: the illusion of consensus? Bethany Spielman; 16. Not quite the last word: scenarios and solutions Karen Orloff Kaplan; Indexes.