Health Care Decision-Making and the “F” Word—Futility

I am pleased to be a part of this upcoming webinar from the American Bar Association: "Health Care Decision-Making and the “F” Word—Futility."



Wednesday, April 23, 2014, from 1:00 – 2:30 Eastern time

• Phone: 800-285-2221 and select option “2”


• Online: http://apps.americanbar.org/cle/programs/t14mfh1.html


• Event code: CET4MFH

Recent cases involving brain dead patients and resulting disputes over continuing organ-sustaining treatments have reignited debate over the appropriate use of medical technologies. The family of Jahi McMath in Oakland, CA, fought to keep their daughter connected to a ventilator, while a hospital in Fort Worth, TX, sought to keep Marlise Muñoz, fourteen weeks pregnant, on a ventilator over the objection of her husband and family. For terminally ill patients who are not brain dead, a family's desire to "do everything possible" sometimes leads to insisting on medical interventions that medical professionals may deem inappropriate or "futile."  



This program will:

• Provide you with an understanding of the range of policy and practice issues concerning medical futility


• Enable you to be accurate and supportive in counseling clients on these issues in the context of advance planning


• Enable you to be more effective in counseling and dispute resolution when conflicts arise in end-of-life decision-making concerning the limits of care


• The focus is not on litigation.  

Faculty:

• Robert L. Fine, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, Clinical Director, Office of Clinical Ethics and Palliative Care, Baylor Health Care System, Dallas, TX


• Bernard "Bud" Hammes, Ph.D, Director of Medical Humanities, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation, La Crosse, WI


• Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, Director, Health Law Institute & Associate Professor of Law, Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, MN


• Charles P. Sabatino, JD (Moderator), Director, ABA Commission on Law and Aging, Washington, DC