ABSTRACT
Public perceptions about medical futility are undoubtedly colored by the fact that the media are more likely to report rare medical successes than routine medical failures. No matter how many times a treatment has failed in the past, there is always a chance that the next time it is used it will succeed. There will always be instances where a futile treatment works, just as there will always be instances where a recommended treatment fails. To the extent that health care providers openly discuss medical futility, and to the extent that health care institutions develop explicit policies about the withholding and withdrawal of futile interventions, abuses involving assertions of medical futility are less likely to occur. Some commentators may argue that so long as insurers are willing to pay for futile treatment, futile treatment should continue to be available. In fact, the long-standing tradition of ethics in medicine prohibits physicians from using futile interventions.
