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Medical Futility and Nursing
Author(s) -
Taylor Carol
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
image: the journal of nursing scholarship
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1547-5069
pISSN - 0743-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1547-5069.1995.tb00892.x
Subject(s) - compromise , autonomy , bioethics , medical care , medicine , nursing , personal autonomy , clinical ethics , psychology , engineering ethics , political science , law , engineering
Defining medical futility is central to the efforts of clinicians and ethicists who seek to identify the limits of patient autonomy. This article is a critique of current efforts to define and then use policies of medical futility to justify refusing requests for treatment and care that have no perceived medical benefit. After exploring the current definitions of medical futility in the bioethics and clinical literature, comparisons of the advantages and disadvantages of the following three options are provided: allowing patients to decide all but physiologic futility, allowing clinicians to decide futility, and pursuing negotiated compromise. The third option–negotiated compromise–is recommended. A role is developed for nurses in preventing and resolving conflict about futile treatment