In preparation for your term paper, research and compare the cases of Quinlan, C
ID: 424530 • Letter: I
Question
In preparation for your term paper, research and compare the cases of Quinlan, Cruzan, and Schiavo. During your research, you should read about patient self-determination, right to die, advance care planning, ethical issues in right to die cases, the moral significance of family decision making, and ethical issues concerning physician-assisted suicide. After you have completed these tasks, write a paper on: Death, Dying, and the Law in America. What are the ethical dilemmas and legal considerations families and providers will be faced with? Do you think that these ethical dilemmas and legal considerations are more important than they were in the past? What ethics issues related to death, medicine, and the family decision-making do you think will apply and be present as the patients experience the dying process today?
Explanation / Answer
What are the ethical dilemmas and legal considerations families and providers will be faced with?
The ethical dilemma and legal considerations that the families and providers are faced with are in terms of brain death. The reformers prefer to provide the organs for multiple transplantations, save money for the hospital by not taking care of a comatose patient whose survival rate is very meager and help the families to move forward in life by having a practical definition of brain death for the comatose patient. On the other hand, advocates who do not support brain death for vulnerable patients strive towards every chance of recovery because they feel that they have the right to live.
Do you think that these ethical dilemmas and legal considerations are more important than they were in the past?
Absolutely, ethical dilemmas and legal considerations are more important today than they were in the past. Brain death and organ transplantation did not become operational until 1967. Organ transplantation is possible only if the patient is declared brain death wherein there is unawareness of the external stimuli, lack of any body motions, no immediate breathing, lack of reflex actions and two isolelectric EEG reading which should be 24 hours apart. These criteria for brain death came into operations only after 1967 and the concept still has ethical dilemmas and of utmost importance today due to the technological advancements in today’s digital world.
What ethics issues related to death, medicine, and the family decision-making do you think will apply and be present as the patients experience the dying process today?