By Dave Andrusko Editor’s note. My family and I will be on vacation through August 25. I will occasionally add new items but for the most part we will repost “the best of the best” — the stories our readers have told us they especially liked over the last ten months. Perhaps I am overstating …
Continue reading "Surprise admission that “futility” is a “value judgment framed as a medical judgment”"By Wesley J. Smith Futile Care Theory has just taken a huge step toward nation-wide imposition with an official policy statement by the American Thoracic Society in collaboration with other medical and nursing associations involved with intensive care internationally. It is a frightening document. The statement, essentially, creates a right of doctors and hospital …
Continue reading "MDs Give Selves Duty-to-Die Power over Patients"By Wesley J. Smith “Don’t mention death panels!“ the medical technocrats often scream–as they plot and plan to institute death panels. And that’s just the course taken by the New York Times physician columnist, Sandeep Jouhar, as he races past supporting Futile Care Theory (in which doctors are permitted withdraw wanted life-sustaining treatment based on …
Continue reading "Pushing “Social Justice” Medical Bigotry"By Wesley J. Smith JAMA has editorialized concerning Futile Care Theory, aka medical futility. The idea is that when a doctor or bioethics committee believes that wanted life-sustaining treatment isn’t worth the suffering or cost, they should be able to veto a family or patient’s decision to stay alive and limit treatment to comfort care. …
Continue reading "No to Ad Hoc Death Panels"By Wesley J. Smith Futile Care Theory claims that doctors and hospital bioethics committees should be empowered to refuse wanted life-sustaining treatment based on their beliefs that the patient’s life is not worth living or too expensive to maintain (or both). But this flies in the face of patient autonomy, supposedly a prime directive of …
Continue reading "Stealth Medical Futility: You Can’t Handle the Truth!"By Wesley J. Smith Futile Care Theory, aka medical futility, is a bioethical theory under which doctors/ hospital bioethics committees are empowered to withdraw wanted life-sustaining treatment based on their perceptions of the patient’s quality of life and/or a cost-benefit analysis determining whether the money being spent is worth the price. Now the Canadian Supreme …
Continue reading "“Right to Live” Case Before Canada Supreme Court"