Some proponents of evidence-based medicine suggest discontinuing the use of any treatment that has not been shown to provide a measurable benefit.
[2] A 2010 survey of more than 10,000 physicians in the United States found respondents divided on the issue of recommending or giving "life-sustaining therapy when [they] judged that it was futile", with 23.6% saying they would do so, 37% saying they would not, and 39.4% selecting "It depends".
], for example, has been qualified as unreasonable obstinacy by his doctor and by several court rulings, but has remained a source of legal proceedings and societal debate for several years over whether stopping treatment would be euthanasia or not.
In France, the Code of Medical Ethics rejects the practice of "acharnement thérapeutique", while advocating palliative care.
[6] As medical care improves and affects more and more chronic conditions, questions of futility have continued to arise.
A relatively recent response to this difficulty in the United States is the introduction of the hospice concept, in which palliative care is initiated for someone thought to be within about six months of death.
Numerous social and practical barriers exist that complicate the issue of initiating hospice status for someone unlikely to recover.