Euthanasia and "Useless Treatment"Imagine visiting your 85-year-old mother in hospital after she has had a debilitating stroke. You discover that, to survive, he needs a feeding tube and antibiotics to fight an infection. He once told you that whatever happened, he wants to live. But the doctor refuses further life-sustaining treatment. When you ask why, you are told, in effect, "The time has come for your mother to die. All we will provide is comfortable care." Does it seem far-fetched? It's not. It's already happening. Just as doctors once hooked people up to machines against their will, many bioethicists now advocate that doctors be allowed to refuse life-sustaining care that a patient wants but deem “frutile” or “inappropriate.” and across the country they have begun to implement these “futile care” policies that say, in effect, “We reserve the right to refuse service.” for obvious reasons: don't advertise. The mainstream media generally ignored the threat. As a result, members of the public and their elected representatives remain in the dark while the “futilitarians” gain the power to issue unilateral death sentences. In fact, futile assistance policies are implemented so quietly that no one knows their consequences. extension. No one has done a systematic study of how many patients lost their lives or whether decisions about unnecessary care were made based on hospital policies or the law. The idea behind futile treatment is this: the patient wants life-sustaining treatment; the doctor does not believe that the patient's quality of life justifies the costs to the healthcare institution or the physical and emotional burden of care; therefore, the doctor has the right to refuse further treatments (other than comfort care) as "unnecessary" or "inappropriate". Treatments refused under this policy might include antibiotics to treat infections, medicines to reduce fever, tube feedings and hydration, kidney dialysis, or ventilatory support. Of course, doctors have never been – nor should they be – required to provide medical interventions that provide no medical benefit. For example, if a patient requests chemotherapy to treat an ulcer, the doctor should refuse. Such a “treatment” would have no medical benefit. But this kind of “physiological futility,” as it is sometimes called, is not what the modern theory of futile care is based on...