MEDICAL FUTILITY IN INFANTS PATIENTS

Medical Futility in Infants patients

Medical Futility in Infants patients

Introduction

There are many pitfalls encountered in cases of medical futility, namely, the definition of futile care; the emotionally charged debate; the responsibility of a physician to his Infants patient; the role of the surrogate decision maker; and who decides what futile care is.

Discussion

The genesis of this paper was a discussion within our Hospital Bioethics Committee as we set about revising our DNR related regulation. As I put more research and thought into the seemingly innocent question of how to define medical futility for the purposes of ...