The courts, futility, and the ends of medicine.

摘要

In this sense, patients, physicians, and society have important interests at stake. Patients have an interest in receiving care consistent with their values. Physicians have an interest in not being compelled to act against their beliefs about how to best respect human dignity near life's end. Society has important interests in protecting individual rights and ensuring the fair allocation of scarce medical resources. When the interests of each party are correctly understood, it is clear that such decisions are not purely "medical" decisions; thus, unilateral clinician decision making is problematic.