Ethics in healthcare

Ethics in Health Care

Euthanasia

Clarifying question: Most American states today have laws against Euthanasia. However, are there not cases where euthanasia is justified?

What if a person has not hope of recovery, for example? A terminal cancer patient may for example wish to speed up the process in order to avoid unnecessary suffering before death. In the case of comatose patients, surely it is only the flesh that is kept alive; the spirit may have long departed. And even if the spirit is still alive within the person, would it not be better to help the person attain freedom from the body, which is for all practical purposes, demised? This is especially so in the case of old age and general physical failure, where death in many cases would be a welcome relief.

It is perhaps important to change legislation to focus more on the rights of the patient than a contrived sense of what is right in terms of morality or even religion. Some questions of euthanasia can easily be dictated either in a patient's living will, the wishes of the family or indeed common sense. In the medical sciences it is important to ensure that the patient and his or her family come to as little harm as possible. While it is wrong to kill, it is important to remember that it is also wrong to harm willfully. Illegalizing all euthanasia in all cases has a harmful effect and should be modified according to the Hippocratic Oath.

2) Impaired infants and medical futility

Interpretive question: Is it possible to provide any quality of life to a child who is so severely impaired that medical science can do very little towards the extension or indeed comfort level of his or her life?

Having children is a fundamental human paradigm that many see as the greatest blessing of all. It is often heard that a young woman wants nothing so much as to be a mother. Mothers also often concur that pregnancy and birth are the most intense, almost divine experiences of a woman's life. The tragedy is that, often those who wish most for the blessing of children are deprived of this privilege for whatever reason. An even greater charity is that, when the long-awaited life finally does arrive, it is damaged so badly that medical science can do very little but alleviate its suffering to some extent. The question is whether such a child should be kept alive, and whether the quality of such a life makes the effort worthwhile.

It is important here to remember that there are various points-of-view from which to see the issue. The mother for example will instinctively wish to keep her child alive for as long as possible. In certain cases, it could be possible to help a child enjoy what he or she has of life. Indeed, many parents having been through such experiences profess that their children brought them blessings and a sense of thankfulness for the time they could share.

3) Abortion

Clarifying question: It is difficult to understand the concept of life's beginning in terms of abortion. In some states and countries, abortion after a certain pregnancy term is illegal, because it is said that life has begun. Is it not however so that the cells forming the baby are alive from the very moment the sperm and egg are created? As part of the human body, surely these are alive before even joining to form a baby.