Ethics and economics of health care

doi:10.1136/bmj.310.6995.1671c

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Prognosis, a traditional alternative to futility

A Michael Weindling

Reader in child health University of Liverpool, Liverpool Women's Hospital, Liverpool L8 7SS

EDITOR,—The editorial by Charles Weijer and Carl Elliott and by Richard Smith raised important questions about the ethics and economics of health care.12 Weijer and Elliott drew attention to the shortcomings of the new and fashionable concept of futility.1 Medicine, however, is a venerable profession and doctors already have suitable concepts in our traditional toolkit—namely, an awareness of the …