Judging who should live: Schneiderman and Jecker on the duty not to treat

In this paper, I consider the thesis advanced by Lawrence J. Schneiderman a nd Nancy S. Jecker that physicians should be forbidden from offering futile treatments to patients. I distinguish between a version of this thesis tha t is trivially true and Schneiderman and Jecker's more substantive version of the thesis. I find that their positive arguments for their thesis are un successful, and sometimes quite misleading. I advance an argument against t heir thesis, and find that, on balance, their thesis should be rejected. I briefly argue that a resolution of the debate about medical futility will r equire addressing deeper issues about value.