Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:57:04.886Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Commentary: The Public and the Profession: Meeting at the Right Place

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Donald J. Murphy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Spielman’s taxonomy of collective decision making about medical futility is timely and insightful. Her conclusion, that laws are the best reflection we have of collective values, may be accurate. However, a closer look at the six alternatives for collective decisions is necessary before we rely too heavily on the legislature.

The first two alternatives, decisions by professional organizations and by health care facilities, smack of paternalism. Spielman suggests that statements from professional organizations or health care facilities express professional values and lack adequate input from the public. Could it be that some of these statements in fact may be the best reflections of public attitudes?

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , Summer 1994 , pp. 161 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Rie, Michael, personal communication, June 20, 1994.Google Scholar
Murphy, D.J., Povar, G.J., Pawlson, L.G., “Setting Limits in Clinical Medicine,” Arch. Intern. Med., 154 (1994): 505–12.Google Scholar
Murphy, D.J., Barbour, E., GUIDe (Guidelines for the Use of Intensive Care in Denver): A Community Effort to Define Futile and Inappropriate Care (Anaheim: New Horizons/Society of Critical Care Medicine, 1994).Google ScholarPubMed
Mary Estill Buchanan, personal communication, May 18, 1994.Google Scholar
Kapp, M.B., “Futile Medical Treatment: A Review of the Ethical Arguments and Legal Holdings,” J. Gen. Intern. Med., 9 (1994): 170–77.Google Scholar
Annas, G.J., “Asking the Courts to Set the Standard of Care—The Case of Baby K,” N. Engl. J. Med., 330 (1994): 1542–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar