Case Study #2 A Man’s Search for Meaning In this case study you have a young man who is in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. He has lost the will to live as a result. He has asked you to keep this multi-pronged sword, a secret. The Ethical problem here is that he has asked you to lie for him and to overlook the fact that he is going to exhaust his own life. If nothing is said you will essentially be an accessory to murder if you say nothing and you will have to live with this decision. I would deal with this ethical dilemma by following a ‘procedural based approach’. I would use this method because it is the most through and objective of all of the other approaches. I feel that when dealing with someone’s life the most objective procedures should be employed as to keep any emotions out of the equation. If these methods can be used this ethical dilemma can be both solved and no values or principles will be compromised. 2. Firstly, I would identify the issues. This case is full of lost hope and a perspective of life shattered in the aftermath of a tragic accident. It is full of …show more content…
This young man has a new injury and has not had time to consider his life beyond this life-changing accident. The only thoughts in his head are that the life he knows has come to an end. He is in a dark tunnel with no light at the end of it. This would be the time that I would search for many positive role models who are in wheelchairs. I would help him see that adversity does not have to end your life; it will be different but not over. I would tell him that the ultimate choice is his if he would want to end his life but I would ask him to consider that he can still achieve his dreams in a wheelchair and that the smartest man in the world, Steven Hawking has been in a wheelchair most of his life and that has not slowed him
When my older sister, Molly, was ten years old, she was a temporary cripple. Molly went through a pretty big surgery that would stop her from tripping over her pigeon toed legs. While living a couple months in her wheelchair, an uncle of ours came to visit. His warm welcome to my sister was pushing her into a corner, locking her wheelchair, and calling her a windowlicker. Thankfully, my sister has tough skin. She took what others would find scarring, all as a joke. It is hard not to be reminded of the unexpected response my sister gave while reading the essay “I AM a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs. Within this essay, the author describes her life as a cripple suffering with MS. While sharing her thoughts and emotions (gerund) from
The case of ethical dilemma concerns a fifty-year old woman who was admitted in the hospital complaining of vomiting, indigestion and weight loss signs and symptoms. After conducting barium X-Ray and gastroscopy it was found out by doctors that the patient was suffering from malignant kind of gastric carcinoma and hence further diagnosis and treatment will have to be conducted in relation to the disease the patient was suffering from. Doctors suggested a palliative surgery for reducing stenosis but felt it before time to disclose this information to the patient which was cemented after proper consultation with the patient’s husband who said that her wife would overreact in a situation like this as she had a phobia regarding tumors and cancer diseases.
The featured film documentary called ‘Murder Ball’ directed by Dana Ruben and Alex Shapiro focuses on Mark Zupan and Joe Soares life of a Quadriplegic person. I have responded to the main characters and their situations including how they make me feel about the lives of Quadriplegic people and how they deal with it during their lifetime. My overall impressions about Mark Zupan and Joe Soares lives as a quadriplegic has encouraged me to respond not to feel sorry for them but to gain respect and be inspired .I will be discussing the film techniques to support my ideas in the documentary.
Ethical dilemmas for all three cases are is it murder by assisting these three patients no longer suffer. Would there be pain and suffering involved directly by their actions? Are they doing the right thing by helping these people
Imagine a frail elderly woman laying in the nursing home in pain. This woman is 80 years old and has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and her heart cannot withstand treatment via radiation or chemotherapy. She has less than six months to live. Day in and day out you pass her room and hear her crying out from the immense pain. The pain medications are no longer working. She’s tired of fighting, tired of hurting, and tired of waiting to die. After consideration and discussions with her family she has decided to ask the doctor to help and end her life. The doctor feels remorse for the elderly lady and wants to help but cannot decide if it is the ethical thing to do because he knows that what he’s
Many people these days take their health and body for granted. Imagine losing the ability to walk suddenly due to an accident or a disease. This is exactly what had happened to Nancy Mairs, author of the essay “On Being a Cripple.” She herself had lost her ability to walk normally when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis or MS, a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system. Her essay talks about her life and dealing with MS. The purpose of the essay is to show how being crippled affects your life and how to stay positive and deal with it.
The easiest way to resolve an ethical dilemma is to work through a straightforward five-step decision method called the Baird Decision Model. The first step is Being Attentive. This step has two pieces: figuring out what exactly is going on in the situation and then determining what ethical values are conflicting with each other.
CNA Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses (2008) provides guidance in dealing with cases like this by explaining the core nursing values and responsibilities involved which are: a) providing safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care; b) promoting health and well-being; c) promoting and respecting informed decision-making, and d) Preserving dignity; e) maintaining confidentiality, f) promoting justice and g) being accountable. The first nursing value is always expected to be upheld in any case because it is their duty to provide care using appropriate safety precautions and preventing/minimizing all forms of violence (CNA, 2008). The collaboration of the nurses between the physician and Mr. C’s family has been evident since then. This therefore calls Mr. C’s nurses to be more compassionate about his situation and try to recognize where he is coming from as they build a trust-worthy relationship before judging him or jumping into conclusions like he does not want to live anymore. Even if he decides to withdraw from these potentially life-sustaining treatments, health care providers are still obliged to give him the care he need the best way they can up until the end of his life. The second nursing value, just like the first one, still calls nurses to still aim to promote or at least maintain Mr. C’s health and well-being to the highest possible level regardless of the path he had chosen for his life. This can be achieved by continuing to collaborate well with other
In terms of the intensity and duration, the disease is life-long and is accompanied by increasing emotional and physical pain. Most of this pain is derived from slowly loosing major bodily functions like walking, speaking, eating, blinking, and even breathing (Canadian medical journal: http://www.cmaj.ca) The extent of those affected include himself and his family members who are most likely suffering emotionally as well. The degree of pain and the extent to which this pain affects others is greater than the pleasure that could be derived from allowing the disease to progress further in answering no to Rob’s request. Thus, under utilitarian principles, the doctor should uphold Rob’s request for physician-assisted death.
Samuel Weston is a 75 year old man who after several strokes is now ‘terminally comatose’. He is breathing on his own, however, he is on a feeding tube as well as getting antibiotics through a tube. Doctors say that eventually his heart will stop, but are unsure of when. They also say that Mr. Weston is permanently unconscious with no chance of improvement and he will never function as a human being again. The family is torn on what to do, some want to pull the tubes out, and some think this would be murder. Jonathan Weston, who has power of attorney, has decided to take the case to the hospitals ethics committee where they must decide what to do. These are the decisions I have come up with:
The writer of “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs, describes her life as difficult, but not entirely worth the cure. The writer struggles with multiple sclerosis, a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system, in which had weakened the left side of her body into wearing a cane. She experiences society pressures, false interactions, and many hard situations of having a body that hardly works. However, she carefully names herself as a “cripple”, and remains proud with being just that. The author never had any control over receiving this disease, however she had enough control in order to keep living with it.
Mike Fink was born with Spina Bifida which is incomplete closure of the spinal column during the first month of fetal development. He runs wheelchair basketball and is involved with Coastal Adoptive Sports. His parents taught him, he can do whatever he want to do. He has been doing jiu jitsu for 2 years and is a double white belt and has been competing in both able body and disability matches his record is 3-3. He can’t feel right leg and sometimes it gets in his way when he is competing. His coach has never coached someone with a disability. Mike was the first disable person he has coached.
There are some ethical dilemmas evident in this scenario, starting with an End of life dilemma, refusal of care and informed consent.“End of
Kropp has been wounded very close to his knee, and Paul’s leg is broken and his arm is wounded. Kropp decides to commit suicide if the doctors amputate is leg stating that he doesn’t want to live life as a cripple. This statement brings up the debate on what should be done with people who have lost one or more of their limbs due to an accident or other reasons. Many times the person who has lost the limb or limbs does not want to be a burden to those who have to take care of him or her, but what they don’t realize is that they aren’t a burden because their lives aren’t burdens. People without limbs can still make a difference in the world, even if someone has to take care of them. The Paralympics, which so many people are inspired by, are comprised entirely of people without limbs or with other disabilities. Ironically, if Kropp does choose to live and survives the war, Adolf Hitler would later kill him during the Holocaust because Hitler also targeted the disabled population, regardless of their
John was told that he may only have 2-3 weeks (previously it was3-5months) to live after a cystoscopy showed further widespread growth of the tumor, it was strong-minded that any further surgical/medical intervention would not be appropriate in this case and that a palliative care regimen was the next step. At this point, the patient reported to the health care team that he had resigned himself to the fact that he was going to die. Mr. John pulled one of the author's classmates aside and confided to the nurse that he intended to kill himself and that is was a covert that the nurse was not to tell anyone. According to this patient's case, the patient Mr. John with end stage aggressive prostate malignancy who had been confirmed that he only have 2-3 week to live expresses the suicide effort to a nursing staff and asks nurse do not tell others. The behavior of patient put the nursing staff in a hard situation, which can be identify as an ethical dilemma. Beauchamp and Walter (2003), defined an ethical dilemma as a situation happens when person must make