Termination Of Care: Mental And Physical Condition Of The Patient

Termination of Care Student Name Institutional Affiliation Termination of Care A patient's behavior can lead to the termination of patient care by the doctor tending to him or her. There are different ways in which a psychiatrist can terminate the relationship. There are very many cases where treatment has been ended, for example the matter between Elizabeth Bouvia and Superior court. At 26 years of age, she enrolled in Riverside General Hospital, California in a psychiatric hospital. Cerebral palsy almost paralyzed her entirely and had severe arthritis, which caused her pain. "She had severe degenerative arthritis."(Jonsen, pg 41) Her family separated themselves from her encouraging feelings of suicide in her mind. These thoughts in mind, she told the doctors to starve her to death, but the doctors suggest that she be forced-fed. The hospital indicated that a tube be inserted in her because she could not be spoon fed without vomiting so as to curb her previous ways of starvation. She later filed a case with the American Liberties Union, which granted her a lawyer. Bouvia sued the medical staff and the hospital, to have the nasogastric tube removed and get a court appeal from the Superior Court of Los Angelo. The court refused her request and said that by granting her wish, they would be abetting suicide. She then appealed the court's decision and the court recognized that a competent adult has the right to know to which extent treatment must submit to their body. Since the refusal of the court to permit Elizabeth to starve herself to death, she was subjected to morphine drops to ease her pains along with force-feeding. In re Quinlan Karen Quinlan was 25 years when she drank alcohol and tranquilizers for ingestion. She passed out and stopped breathing for two hours and fifteen minutes. Her father, Joseph Quinlan suggested that she removed from the health respirator, but the Karen's' physician and the hospital declined. He applied to the Superior Court of New Jersey and later became a plaintiff. Paul W. Armstrong and James M. Crowley filed to appoint Joseph Quinlan as Quinlan's legal guardian and act on her behalf. He proposed that if the guardianship granted, should contain the power to the guardian to authorize the discontinuance of medical procedures which present no hopes for the recovery of his daughter. According to the Milwaukee Journal, the court denied his appeal on November 10, 1975, but he appealed the decision to the Supreme Court who granted his motion on March 31, 1976 (Milwaukee, pg 8)...