"Medical futility" in Dutch neonatology

This book is about the concept of 'medical futility' and the regulation and operationalisation of medical futility in Dutch Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). A NICU is a high-technology medical setting, where most of the life-prolonging treatment available for desperately sick newborns is administered. 'Medical futility' is a legal and ethical ground for withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging treatment from a patient whose condition is too poor to justify (further) medical intervention. It is supposed to be a 'hard' and 'medical' criterion, based on the doctor's technical expertise. In connection with its (real or supposed) 'objectivity', 'medical futility' can be a ground for unilateral non-treatment decisions. This means that if a treatment is 'medically futile', the doctor of medical team should withhold or withdraw it even over the objections of a competent patient (or, in the case of a non-competent patient such as a baby, its representative).

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