Time for a formalized medical futility policy. Mercy Health System's procedures will help free its physicians from legal concerns.

F or the past decade a debate has raged in the medical, ethical, and legal communities over medical futility. The concept is not new, especially as it applies to end-of-life care. Physicians since the time of Hippocrates have recognized some medical conditions as hopeless and have accordingly recommended no further treatment for the patients suffering them. But what has fueled the fires of the recent debate is the patients rights movement and the accompanying perception that the right of self-determination extends not only to the refusal of medical treatment but to demands for oveltreatment as well.