It’s Not Just about ‘Quality of Life’

May 4, 2015

(New York Times) – Of all the situations a doctor can encounter in a hospital, perhaps none is as nerve-racking as a so-called futility case. It has been estimated that there are at least 12,000 such cases in the United States every year, each typically costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. A vast majority are settled through discussions between doctors and patients’ families or mediation by a medical ethics team. But a large number cannot be resolved.