Description:

The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities and Bioethics program presents

A Montgomery Lecture

with

Mark Sheldon, PhD
Assistant Dean
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Northwestern University

Distinguished Senior Lecturer
Department of Philosophy
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Northwestern University

Faculty in the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Ethics Consult Service
Department of Religion, Health and Human Values
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, Illinois

We Should Talk About Futility, But How?

Futility is an idea that comes and goes with varying importance. At one point it was viewed as very important as a means of responding to the way the right to refuse treatment seemed to morph into the right to demand treatment. But then it appears to have disappeared. I want to argue that we should bring the term back, make robust use of it, but as we do this we need to be clear about the appropriate circumstance in which to use the term.