Misuses of “Quality of Life” Judgments in End-of-Life Care
Physicians’ misperceptions about their disabled patients’ quality of life (QoL) can influence their decision to offer certain medical treatments. There are at least three domains in which misconceptions about a disabled QoL might result in unequal care for disabled patients and could even lead to a patient’s untimely death: (1) futility declarations, (2) recommendations for comfort care, (3) and the distribution of scarce resources. This article argues that medical futility decisions should not be based on a physician’s QoL judgments, that physicians should not steer disabled patients into comfort care when they have treatable illnesses, and that disability alone should never be a reason to deprioritize a patient for scarce medical resources.