This article highlights and summarises the key developments in medical law in the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom in 2005 and to April 2006. Topics are mental health and mental capacity, data protection, freedom of information and the impact on health data, the Human Tissue Act, genetic research databanks, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act--Review of the legislation, consultations and ...

This essay opens with background information about the concept of "medical futility" and the regulation of nontreatment decisions in Dutch neonatology. The regulations include a list of criteria for predicting the baby's future quality of life. The second part presents the findings from interviews with fourteen Dutch neonatologists on the mannerin which they apply the criteria in their practice.

A few recent, large, well-publicized trials in critical care medicine have been stopped for futility. In the critical care setting, stopping for futility means that independent review committees have elected to stop the trial early--based on predetermined rules--since the likelihood of finding a treatment effect is low. For bedside clinicians the idea of futility in a clinical trial can be conf...

Ethical issues in the critical care unit frequently arise in children with neurological problems. These ethical issues frequently challenge our medical management of such cases and can be quite problematic. This article reviews key ethical issues that may arise including informed consent, futility, justice/rationing, clinical research conduct and the severely compromised patient who is in eithe...

INTRODUCTION This paper aimed to ascertain if hospital policy on medical futility helps in conflict resolution, and in ensuring good end-of-life care. MATERIALS AND METHODS Literature on the subject published in the last 5 years was identified through Pubmed, and those with empirical data pertaining to the outcomes of interest were examined. A systematic analysis was not possible as papers va...

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 ...