Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
Medical Futility And Disability Discrimination, Mary Crossley
Medical Futility And Disability Discrimination, Mary Crossley
Articles
The concept of medical futility, which originally developed in the medical literature as a basis for allocating between physician and patient decisional authority regarding end-of-life treatment, is increasingly appearing in discussions regarding possible methods of containing medical costs by limiting treatment. This use of medical futility as a rationing mechanism, whether by a state Medicaid program or by a hospital, raises concerns regarding its impact on persons with severe disabilities near the end of life. This article considers how the applicability of the Americans with Disabilities Act to cost-conscious futility policies might be analyzed. After developing arguments that proponents and …
Of Diagnoses And Discrimination: Discriminatory Nontreatment Of Infants With Hiv Infection, Mary Crossley
Of Diagnoses And Discrimination: Discriminatory Nontreatment Of Infants With Hiv Infection, Mary Crossley
Articles
Evidence of physician attitudes favoring the withholding of needed medical treatment from infants infected with HIV compels a reassessment of the applicability and adequacy of existing law in dealing with selective nontreatment. Although we can hope to have learned some lessons from the Baby Doe controversy of the mid-1980s, whether the legislation emerging from that controversy, the Child Abuse Amendments of 1984, has ever adequately dealt with the problem of nontreatment remains far from clear. Today, the medical and social characteristics of most infants infected with HIV introduce new variables into our assessment of that legislation. At stake are the …