A defence of the requirement to seek consent to withhold and withdraw futile treatments.

Futile or fruitful: the charter and the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment.

Physicians' decisions to withhold and withdraw life-sustaining treatment.

BACKGROUND Few data are available about physicians' decisions in regard to withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining measures. We therefore studied internists' views on this subject. METHODS We surveyed 1000 generalist and subspecialist internists about their views on withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. Thirty-two hypothetical cases were included. The effect of the demograp...

I-24: Consents and Contracts for Embryo Cryopreservation

Background: Couples receiving IVF treatment may choose to have embryos frozen, with the aim of creating a pregnancy and ultimately a live birth in future. Problems can arise when couples separate. Under UK law, embryos can only be transferred with the consent of both genetic parents. The issue came to public prominence in the case of Natallie Evans, who lost the opportunity to have her own gene...

Frequency of Medical Futility and its Costs in Deceased Neonates with a Probable Diagnosis of Inherited Metabolic Disorder in Children’s Medical Center, Iran

Background and purpose: Futile medical care is referred to any medical intervention or activity that bring no benefit to patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of futile treatment and its cost in neonates with a probable diagnosis of inherited metabolic disorder. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, hospitalization records of all admitted neonates in Chi...

Decisions concerning potentially life-sustaining treatments in paediatric nephrology: a multicentre study in French-speaking countries.

BACKGROUND Few studies have looked at how decisions are made to withhold or to withdraw potentially life-sustaining treatments (LST) in paediatric nephrology. The aim of this work was to evaluate such practices in all nephrology centres in French-speaking European countries, so that guidelines could be discussed and drawn up by professionals. METHODS We used semi-directed interviews to questi...