Providence Guest Lecturer Asks: Should the Law Define Medical Futility?

Sept. 28 , 2007

WHAT: When does treatment at the end of life, or in conditions with devastating loss of functions, become “futile?” Does the determination of futility of treatment justify terminating life-sustaining treatment over the persistent objection of the patient or family? Visiting scholar Sandra Johnson, J.D., L.L.M., will discuss these conflicts that arise with some frequency and can persist despite the best efforts to resolve them.

The lecture is presented by Providence Center for Health Care Ethics and co-sponsored by Lewis & Clark Law School.

WHEN: 7 to 8 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2007

WHERE: Lewis & Clark Law School
Student Lounge
10015 SW Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, Ore.

COST: Free and open to the public.

DETAILS: Ethicists, physicians and hospitals, and now state legislatures, have all attempted to define the concept of “medical futility” and that point at which power shifts entirely to the health care professionals for decision making. Selecting a definition of medical futility is more than semantics. It is, instead, a question of ethics and public policy. This lecture will discuss recent legal developments in the question of medical futility as a way of examining the fundamental value questions that arise in developing an operational definition of medical futility.

Sandra Johnson, J.D., LL.M., holds the Tenet Endowed Chair in Health Care Law and Ethics, Center for Health Care Ethics & School of Law, Saint Louis University. She also teaches in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health. In 1982, she became the founding director of the Center for Health Law Studies, now recognized as one of the top health law centers in the country. Professor Johnson’s scholarship has helped form the field of health law. She is co-author of Health Law - Cases, Materials and Problems. This text is used by more than 150 universities and has been cited more than 500 times in scholarly articles and court opinions. Her research interests include long-term health care and bioethics. In collaboration with other scholars, she helped draft the Model Pain Relief Act, which has been adopted by several state legislatures.

The Curtis R. Holzgang, M.D., Visiting Scholar Series was launched in 2001 and is named for Dr. Curtis R. Holzgang, director of Critical Care Medicine, Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. For more information, please visit www.providence.org/ethics.