The Law and Ethics of Non-beneficial Treatment Policies

Healthcare Law

Abstract

A non-beneficial treatment is defined as when a physician decides that the patient’s prognosis of a medical illness or injury, cannot be altered by a certain form of treatment.1 No medical therapy can improve the patient’s prognosis or condition. The ethics regarding non-beneficial treatment policies are of great debate due to their lack of consistency between healthcare systems. This paper compares the non-beneficial treatment policies between a hospital that operates under religious values and one that bases their values on community and population health with no religious ties. These policies will be compared to the guidelines put forth by the American Medical Association (AMA) Code of Medical Ethics, American Thoracic Society (ATS), American Association for Critical Care Nurses (ACCN), American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), European Society for Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), and Society of Critical Care (SCCM). The purpose of this paper is to highlight how subjective these policies can be and how their inconsistencies between hospital systems can lead to harmful patient outcomes.