Imagine you are part of a nine-member ethics committee at the local hospital. At

Question

Imagine you are part of a nine-member ethics committee at the local hospital. At your committee meeting, the committee is presented with the issue of a patient who has been on life support for the past six months and has not shown any signs of improvement or the ability to survive without life support. The patient has appointed two healthcare surrogates who have opposing opinions on whether to withdraw life support. Answer the following questions:

What are the major ethical issues in this case?

What laws, if any, are applicable to the decision?

How should the ethics committee render a decision in this case?

If there are differences of opinion among committee members, how should the committee deal with the differences?

Explanation / Answer

Ethical issues, in this case, are as follows:

1) In withholding care, doctors withhold information about interventions and create decision making burden.

2) In withdrawing care, there is a clear imperative to include the patients in decisions and share information and secure consent.

The laws applicable to this decision are:

The decision, in this case, must be taken with participation with family members. Conflict about withdrawing life support is common among clinicians, committee members, and families which must be negotiated with good communication skills. Withdrawal of life support is a clinical procedure that needs good medical skills, cultural sensitivity, knowledge about ethical principles and collaboration with families.

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