A broader look at medical futility

This paper attempts to provide a descriptive theoretical overview of the me dical futility debate. I will first argue that quantitative data cannot alo ne resolve the medical futility debate. I will then examine two aspects of medical futility, which I call the prospective and immediate, respectively. The first involves making prospective factual and value judgments about th e efficacy of proposed medical interventions, while the latter involves mak ing value judgments about ongoing medical conditions where the clinical dat a are clear. At stake is the nature and scope of individual rights. Thus, I maintain there is an undeveloped aspect to the medical futility debate and , briefly, analyze two political perspectives which give rise to different understandings of medical futility. The view that I will defend is that onl y a system with defined collective goals can accommodate a normative concep t of medical futility. These larger questions are the value options which, if unaddressed, may be settled by default of economic grounds.