Austin American-Statesman, April 15, 2007Dr. Howard Brody University of Texas Medical Branch Perhaps no medical issue is fraught with more emotion than whether to continue or suspend health care at the end of life. The Texas Advance Directives Act contains provisions that would allow a hospital to cease treatment for a patient after the staff has determined, with careful review, that ongoing treatment won't produce a reasonable chance of recovery or survival. In health care circles, this circumstance is defined as "medical futility." Several futility cases have been reported in the media over the last two years, often in ways that depicted the doctors and the hospital as heartless. The medical outcomes of such cases tell a very different story. No patient for whom the futility law was invoked has yet recovered or in any way shown that the determination of the medical facts by the staff was incorrect.