Medical Futility

摘要: Futility is hardly a novel idea in medicine. Its roots ancient medicine go back at least to the fifth-century BC physician Hippocrates.1,2Yet debates over its meaning and ethical implications are surfacing with growing frequency. Increasingly, physicians seek limit lengths which they must sustain lives of patients who have lost ability for conscious, interactive, meaningful functioning. For example, recent case Hennepin County (Minnesota) Medical Center, invoked medical futility support withdrawal life-sustaining treatments from patient, Helga Wanglie, was irreversibly respirator dependent unconscious (S. Miles, MD, written communication, March 22, 1991). Michael Belzer, Director stated that although he sympathized family members insisted everything possible be done, "We don't feel obligated provide inappropriate treatment not