Medical Futility and Potentially Inappropriate Treatment: Better Ethics with More Precise Definitions and Language.

The primary objective of this article is to defend the vocabulary in the Multiorganization Policy Statement. The Multiorganization Statement narrows but does not abolish the term futility. Rather, it offers a richer and more precise vocabulary that facilitates better ethical decision-making. The secondary objective of this article is to defend the continuing utility of the terms and concepts "quantitative futility" and "qualitative futility" defended by Schneiderman, Jecker, and Jonsen (2017).