Judging who should live: Schneiderman and Jecker on the duty not to treat.
In this paper, I consider the thesis advanced by Lawrence J. Schneiderman and Nancy S. Jecker that physicians should be forbidden from offering futile treatments to patients. I distinguish between a version of this thesis that is trivially true and Schneiderman and Jecker's more substantive version of the thesis. I find that their positive arguments for their thesis are unsuccessful, and sometimes quite misleading. I advance an argument against their thesis, and find that, on balance, their thesis should be rejected. I briefly argue that a resolution of the debate about medical futility will require addressing deeper issues about value.
Harper
W
W
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa 35487, USA.
D026686:Beneficence; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D006801:Humans; D018447:Medical Futility; D010166:Palliative Care; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D028723:Personhood; D016079:Refusal to Treat; D012945:Social Values; D013727:Terminal Care; D026712:Value of Life; D028761:Withholding Treatment