Conflict in the Pediatric Setting: Clinical Judgment vs. Parental Autonomy
- 1 January 1995
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
- Vol. 4 (1) , 36-43
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0963180100005624
Abstract
Over the past several decades, conflicts between physicians and patients or patient surrogates concerning continued treatment or the withdrawal of treatment have received public and legal attention. In more recent years, there have been several prominent Instances in which physicians have refused to provide treatment requested by patient surrogates because such treatment was judged to be futile. The claim that a treatment is futile has far reaching consequences. It serves to justify the withholding or withdrawal of treatment and thus, perhaps, to also justify the rationing of healthcare. It limits the autonomy of the patient or patient surrogate by reducing their participation in the decision making process.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Medical Futility: Its Meaning and Ethical ImplicationsAnnals of Internal Medicine, 1990
- The illusion of futility in clinical practiceThe American Journal of Medicine, 1989