Futile Treatment
Treatment provided to a patient with a life-threatening illness that will do no more than prolong the dying process. Physiologic futility is the utter impossibility that the patient’s condition can be improved by continuing or increasing restorative interventions (i.e., ‘only prolonging the dying process’). Value-based futility (or quality of life futility) is the recognition that continuing or increasing restorative interventions conflicts with the patient’s preferences, values, and goals of care.