| When Doctors Say No: The Battleground of Medical Futility Contributor(s): Rubin, Susan B. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0253334632 ISBN-13: 9780253334633 Publisher: Indiana University Press OUR PRICE: $24.65 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 1998 Annotation: The medical situation is critical, even life-threatening. The doctor refuses to offer or to continue providing "futile" medical treatment. The patient, or the patient's family, insists that everything possible must be done. Who should decide? In When Doctors Say No, philosopher and bioethicist Rubin examines this controversial issue. She offers a critique of the concept of medical futility and the dissension surrounding it, and she calls for more public debate about the underlying issues at stake for all of us -- patients, families, health care providers, insurers, and society at large. Despite pressures to set limits, many of them legitimate, Rubin argues that the futility debate and the policies and practices that have evolved in response to it are misguided. She rejects the popular arguments supporting unilateral decision-making by physicians, and calls instead for a different kind of conversation about the central values at stake when doctors and patients so dramatically disagree. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Medical | Ethics |
| Dewey: 174.2 |
| LCCN: 98006798 |
| Series: Medical Ethics |
| Physical Information: 0.91" H x 6.42" W x 9.52" (1.07 lbs) 208 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The book is a fine addition to the world of academic medical ethics . . . Readers . . . will come away with some of the tools for further debate. --Publishers Weekly Susan B. Rubin's splendid new book . . . offers positive, humane solutions to the frustrations that have given rise to the futility debate. --Carl Elliott, Medical Humanities Review Rubin offers a thorough and thought-provoking exploration of the concept of futility as a basis for medical decisions. --Choice . . . [the] brilliant analysis found in Rubin's [book] couldn't be more timely. . . . When Doctors Say No is the most thorough philosophical rebuttal to be found in the literature of medical futility as the basis for unilateral decisionmaking by physicians. --Charles Weijer, Canadian Medical Association Journal Should physicians be permitted to unilaterally refuse to provide treatment that they deem futile? Even if the patient, or the patient's family, insists that everything possible must be done? In this book, philosopher and bioethicist Rubin examines this controversial issue. She offers a critique of the concept of medical futility and the debate surrounding it, and she calls for more public debate about the underlying issues at stake for all of us--patients, families, health care providers, insurers, and society at large. |