“Futility” is a term used in medical care to characterize interventions in seriously ill patients who are often terminal that will have little effect on outcome or prognosis. Typically these include treatments that cannot reasonably be expected to achieve even its physiological objective. In this regard, futility refers to the benefit of a particular intervention for a particular patient.
“Futility” is a term used in medical care to characterize interventions in seriously ill patients who are often terminal that will have little effect on outcome or prognosis. Typically these include treatments that cannot reasonably be expected to achieve even its physiological objective. In this regard, futility refers to the benefit of a particular intervention for a particular patient. With futility, the central question is “Does the intervention have any reasonable prospect of helping this patient?” Although the ethical requirement to respect patient autonomy entitles a patient to choose from among medically acceptable treatment options (or to reject all options), it does not entitle patients to receive whatever treatments they ask for. Instead, because the goal of medicine is to help the sick, physicians are under no obligation to offer treatments that do not benefit their patients. The obligations of physicians are limited to offering treatments that are consistent with professional standards of care. In this regard, futile interventions are ill advised because they often increase a patient’s pain and discomfort in the final days and weeks of life, and can expend finite medical resources.
See
Futility Fact Sheet
Medical Futility Questions & Answers
“Futility”, University of Washington, School of Medicine, Ethics Curriculum