I could go on and on about the pros, so let me try to think of a downside. If nothing else, try to be aware that no matter what differences you have now, you will have to live on as a family after your loved one dies, and you may yet have to come together over other decisions about survivors, estates, funeral planning and so on. In some cases, they alleviate one condition but exacerbate another. Administration on Aging, this site provides links to local and state resources, as well as information on topics about aging, including long-term care, nursing homes and caregiving. We take a position that we should apply wisdom to the dying process and allow the dying to have a full range of choices. The problem whether legalize euthanasia or not revolves around multiple moral, ethical and socio-economic issues.
Certain end-of-life choices consist of never commencing life-supports once it is well-defined that starting the patient on a ventilator will only lengthen the method of dying Lotto, 2012. From a medical point of view, continuing artificial nutrition and hydration is a common means by which our life ends Lin, 2003. However, today there are a number of landmark cases and situations that have people split over ethical issues, with each side feeling passionate about their moral stance. So, instead of starting the process all over from scratch, these late-comers can be permitted to read the death-planning record, which details all of the deliberations to that point. Sometimes, though, it feels more like a way to keep machinery from tormenting your loved one. Aspiring to Virtue Virtue ethics is a less-common but very ancient approach to making ethical decisions. This has always been a contentious issue that often ends in legal battles but still, some people are for it while others are against it.
You get to watch the worl … d progress in leaps and bounds. At the end of our lives, if we cannot eat normally, then we might be attached either temporarily or permanently to a feeding-tube that puts special foods directly into our stomachs. These medical procedures may not always prove helpful, but they definitely give some hope. As common as life support has become, a debate over ethical issues related to it has become just as common. Pregnancy can occur even with responsible contraceptive use. Will they be brain dead, in pain, etc? The process may keep a person alive and may increase the chances of recovering but there is an equal chance that the patient may suffer an array of side effects. We should appoint proxies who will carry forward our settled values if and when we can no longer decide for ourselves or can no longer express our wishes.
How long and what are the cost associated with prolonged life support? If in fact we are being kept alive by any form of medical equipment, any choices made about. Maybe laws are needed to regularize the withdrawal of life-supports. The weak point of deontology is that it doesn't always address extreme situations where most people would be willing to grant an ethical exception. A fact explains the stages of the disease. The weak point of virtue ethics is that different people have different ideas about which virtues a person should cultivate. In addition, it can generate a company of zombies with no fresh ideas.
The continual feud between the Montague and Capulet families result in a ongoing conflict and end with the death of Romeo and Juliet. As we learn to make wise decisions about terminating life-supports, we are also learning how to articulate the safeguards that should be applied to all life-ending decisions. When we are beyond making our own choices, our proxies are empowered to make all of the medical decisions that were automatically given to us while we were still full persons. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 16 1 , 203-211. There are innumerable families that have been financially devastated due to medical expenses and life support is certainly one of the more expensive treatments. Implied safeguards are widely used for these medical decisions today. In this situation, we can refuse to take any of the drugs that keep us alive.
According to the Advanced Cardiac Life Support Training Center, two of the largest arguments for life support are that it assists in sustaining life for an indefinite period of time and that it goes against many people's moral codes to allow someone to die. Should the ventilator be weaned slowly or quickly? O' Rourke, 2005 Family members or legal proxies may be called upon to make a decision of this nature for patients who are unable to speak for themselves. While increasing economic growth has several advantages to the nation and inhabitants of the nation, it has its fair share of disadvantages. Only 8 percent of women who have abortions do not use any form of birth control, and that is due more to individual carelessness than to the availability of abortion. From that perspective, even if a person recovers after having been put on life support, then the true nature of recovery and if the person would be healthy and have a long life are not certain. The pros are the good thi … ngs about the subject and the cons are the bad things. As such, its health is dependent on her health, and cannot be regarded as a separate entity as it cannot exist outside her womb.
If some disease or condition that would, as a rule, take months or even years to bring death, the need for life-support could be longer. Life support can allow the time the families need to accept the inevitable. She further criticized Senator Green, by stating that she herself Palin , went as far as to inform the Senator of a legislative tool that Green could have employed to advance the bills by requesting a scheduled hearing, to which Green neglected to utilize. If we live long enough, we will most likely be using various medications at the end of our lives. Nourishing another person seems like the most basic and humane option. List of Pros of Life Support 1.
In the final stages of dementia, people lose their ability to control most bodily functions, and they often forget how to swallow and have no interest in eating or drinking. Nowadays advances in medicine allow doctors to prolong and sustain life although the person will not recover from a persistent vegetative state. For instance, a consequentialist might argue that you should risk your life to save a drowning person because it would make him and his family happier if you saved him, but virtue ethics would say that you should try to rescue him because it is courageous and you should aspire to be a courageous person. We do have informal and behind-the-scenes methods for making such withdrawal decisions. Every day a family may think that it is time to stop life support and the family may wonder what if another day can make a difference.
Life support can be wonderful if the medial prognosis shows that the patient may recover soon. It is quintessential that we look at the pros and cons of life support in a completely pragmatic and objective manner. The case of a 6-month old baby in Florida who is on life support may be horrible and heartbreaking, especially for the parents, but there is a silver lining in the midst of the grief and shock. Life support is the only way to keep a person alive and to wait and see if the patient recovers. First, wranglers are just cool.
There are instances, on record, where the patients have been put on life support, have recovered fully and have resumed their lives. Physician assisted suicide will help preserve the organs and thus can be helpful for those in need of such transplants. Give a Dignified Death Legalizing physician assisted suicide would allow people to opt for death in a dignified way. We might want to see a grandchild or great-grandchild before we die. But a ventilator will not stop the dying process, and with it may come the need for additional medical treatments, including additional sedation, blood tests and X-rays. The strength of this ethical position is that it can help a person overcome her own ethical weak points.