Medical
advances have greatly impacted our lifespan, quality of living and our ability
to prevent, detect, maintain and cure various illnesses. Copious amounts of
money are spent on the development of new technologies and conducting research to
further understand disease and if not to cure it, to allow us a somewhat
comfortable life with whatever illness afflicts us. However, medicine has
opened new avenues and opportunity for ethical dilemmas to arise. Innovations
in life support have allowed us to prolong someone’s life for an extended amount
of time even when they are unconscious, brain dead or afflicted with a lifelong
debilitating illness. In my experience, many people voice their desire to avoid
these life sustaining measures. Gregory Pence voiced that same sentiment when
he referred to life support machines as “an oppressive medical technology that
prolongs dying”. The medical community will only continue developing this “oppressive
medical technology” and the need for more and more individuals who understand
ethical theory will be needed to balance these advances.
Most hospitals
have ethics committees that can be consulted in sensitive issues about patient
care and life support. At the hospital where I am employed, there is an ethics committee who
will become involved when called upon by a physician or the nursing staff.
However, I am unaware of any type of information or training that educates the
staff on when the ethics committee should be called in and how one would go
about that process. I am curious of how active the ethics committee is in the hospital
setting and whether they have a general understanding of ethical theory and a
quality process in handling ethical dilemmas.
Questions for thought:
Do you agree with philosopher Gregory
Pence’s viewpoint that life support can be an oppressive medical technology?
What requirements should an
individual have to be on an ethics committee?
How many individuals should be on
the committee?
Resources
and informative articles:
AMA Journal
of Ethics: “ Why Did Hospital Ethics Committees Emerge in the US”
AMA: “Ethics
Committees in Health Care Institutions”
Interesting. How many are on the ethics committee at your hospital? How were they selected for membership? Do they meet regularly, or only when summoned in response to specific cases?
ReplyDeleteThis will sound like special pleading, but I think every ethics board ought to employ not just a compliance officer but also a professionally-trained bioethicist, a large part of whose job would be precisely to decide when it is appropriate and necessary to convene meetings and address particular issues.
Life support is oppressive until it'S YOUR life at issue, supposing the prospect of renewed health with a minimum of intervening pain is real. The problem is not with these technologies so much as with our indecision about when and how to deploy them, and our failure to articulate our own wishes in that regard.
I myself agree with Gregory Pence's viewpoint that life support can be an oppressive medical technology. I won't speak for anyone else, but if I was only able to live by being dependent on life support in a hospital where I could not leave or perform even basic functions, I would not want to continue on living as there would be no reason since everything I enjoy requires some sort of activity.
ReplyDeleteThese ethic committees are interesting I would like to know if they patients are also allowed to meet with them, I have heard that in many cases of discriminatory behavior towards minority patients. Whether it’s regarding the care the patient is receiving or simple lack of educating the patient on their decisions. I think it would be nice to offer a service like that to the public as well, not just the physicians.
ReplyDeleteIn the light of the incident at Hacienda Healthcare, I believe hospitals are not the only care facilities that require ethical committees. Respect should be given to all individuals in all states of living and mind.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/hacienda-healthcare-still-under-investigation-after-nurse-charged-with-sexual-assault/