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The author discusses the ethics of rescue medicine. The author states that in tragic situations, rescue medicine renews hope and has the power to restore faith in human beings. The author notes that despite strong positive emotions, rescue efforts provoke chaos. The author mentions that when rescue medicine prevents other values such as long-term care and universal access to health care, it becomes unjust and an irrational system for allocating health care.

Our response to death may differ depending on the patient's age. We may feel that death is a sad, but acceptable event in an elderly patient, yet feel that death in a very young patient is somehow unfair. This paper explores whether there is any ethical basis for our different responses. It examines in particular whether a patient's age should be relevant to the determination that an intervention is medically futile. It also considers the responsibilities of health professionals and the rights of family members in situations where an interventions is clearly futile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses expanded access programs describing the usage of experimental therapy that benefits research participants. Topics discussed information on Food and Drug Administration's approval of nusinersen for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), justification for patient selection criteria on the bases of utilitarian and deontological arguments, and incremental improvement in well-being.