When the Clinicians Have Had Enough but the Family Wants to Go On

Joel Frader delivered a webinar, this afternoon, for Children's Mercy Bioethics: "When the Clinicians Have Had Enough but the Family Wants to Go On."  Here are my notes.

Conflicts between professional values
and family values should “in general” be resolved in favor of the family.  Exceptions are few and far between.  Maybe not even “brain death” is an example.  But an example would be epidermolysis bullosa.
Clinicians have a bias for valuing
cognitive skills.  But others value the person no matter their cognitive abilities or ability to interact with their environment.
If the family has beliefs about value of
continued biological existence (despite cognitive capacity), then
life-sustaining treatment is not “futile.” 
Polls show that 20% of the U.S. public believes life support is valuable
despite cognitive capacity.
Futility policies act unfairly against
those with less money, less English language ability, less ability to stand up
to the hospital.
Talking helps.  Families often eventually agree to forgo some interventions.

Source: blog.bioethics.net - December 4, 2015 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope Tags: Health Care medical futility blog syndicated Source Type: blogs