Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Jul 2004
["Medical futility": the doctor caught between the demands for and the limitations of treatment].
The term medical futility is applied to justify withholding treatments in patients who are likely to gain minimal benefit. Futility refers to limiting the moral obligation to provide medical treatment on the basis of clinical efficacy. ⋯ Secondly, who should determine when a treatment is futile. In this article we summarize the debate about futility and discuss the relevance of this concept.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Jul 2004
[Ethical decision-making at the end of life--knowledge and attitudes of medical students].
Physicians are often confronted with ethical and legal questions at the end of life. In this study we asked medical students at the universities of Mainz and Berlin (Charité) about the "Guidelines on Physicians' Aid to the Dying" issued by the German Medical Association: their moral attitude and legal knowledge regarding the limitation of medical procedures at the end of life and their judgement about the quality of medical education on these topics. ⋯ Only a minority of medical students was informed about ethical principles and legal regulations regarding end-of-life decisions. Teaching of ethical and legal knowledge and integration of these issues into clinical problem solving should be mandatory.