title: A new style of end-of-life cases: a patient's right to demand treatment or a physician's right to refuse treatment? The futility debate revisited.
abstract: A classic end-of-life conflict between a physician and a patient concerns a patient's refusal of care. New conflicts have begun to emerge. This time the patient wants treatment while the physician refuses treatment based on a futility judgment. Most of the time the predominance of the physician's view is stressed. In this article this predominance is critically analysed resulting in a re-appraisal of the patient's will.
authors.affiliation: Dewallens & Partners, Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp, Belgium. Christophe.Lemmens@ua.ac.be
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lemmens
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D018447:Medical Futility / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D010820:Physicians / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D016079:Refusal to Treat / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D019452:Terminally Ill; D016312:Treatment Refusal / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*