Medical futility and its challenges: a review study

Area of Science:

• Medical ethics
• Intensive care medicine
• End-of-life care

Background:

• Limited resources in intensive care units (ICUs) highlight the challenge of medical futility.
• Medical futility presents a conflict between physician authority and patient autonomy in end-of-life decision-making.
• Understanding medical futility is crucial for ethical medical practice.

Approach:

• A systematized review of existing literature was conducted.
• A comprehensive search of Persian and English databases was performed using broad keywords.
• 89 relevant articles were selected and analyzed.

Key Points:

• Medical futility is a complex, ambiguous, and subjective concept.
• Its determination is influenced by value systems, medical goals, sociocultural context, and personal characteristics.
• There is a lack of objective criteria for defining medical futility.
• Uncertainty is inherent in the concept of medical futility.

Conclusions:

• Achieving a consensus on the definition of medical futility is challenging.
• Medical futility should be assessed on an individual patient basis.
• The unique condition of each patient is paramount in determining medical futility.