The Absence of Malpractice Lawsuits for Unilateral Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment

I have argued and demonstrated (here, here, and here, among other places) that there have been very few successful damages actions against healthcare providers for unilaterally withdrawing life-sustaining treatment where such treatment was determined (by the providers) to be non-beneficial and inappropriate.  Physician John Luce is doing a study of California cases, and has similarly found that, among other things, "a lot of such conflicts, Dr. Luce believes, likely never get as far as a courtroom.  For one reason, it's difficult to find an expert who will testify that the attending doctor violated the standard of care."  

Apart from challenges concerning the merits of such cases are a number of practical obstacles.  For a very nice illustration of these, see Tennessee lawyer John Day's post about a physician who wanted to file a malpractice action against another physician and hospital.

Source: http://medicalfutility.blogspot.com/2010/12/absence-of-malpractice-lawsuits-for.html

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