title: Medical futility.
abstract: The debate on medical futility can lead to a fresh revisiting of the doctor-patient relationship and with it a restoration of common sense and reality to society's grasp of the powers and limits of medicine. In my view, the duty of the physician is to attempt that which is of therapeutic benefit to the patient. Nothing less and nothing more.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Schneiderman
mesh_terms: D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D006801:Humans; D018447:Medical Futility; D010358:Patient Participation; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D014481:United States