Applying Ethical Decision-Making in the Case of Brain Death

Applying Ethical Decision Making in Health Care:
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Applying Ethical Decision Making in Health Care – Case Study
The client, Carrie, a 26-year-old female is a victim of an accident. The client is put on life-support machines and is not responding to management. The physicians are concerned that she might not make it since she is already in a persistent vegetative state and lacks brain’s function. However, her parents believe that their daughter will recover with time and insist that the physicians continue with her management. On the other hand, Carrie’s husband, Bob has requested the physicians to cease offering her care as she is reluctant that his wife will pull through. Bob also argues that keeping the Carrie on the life-support machines is against her wish. At the same time, do not have a living will or a medical power of attorney identified.
First, the physicians find themselves in an ethical dilemma since one, their client, Carrie is on persistent vegetative state and is unresponsive to management. Her brain has stopped functioning an indication of very limited chances of survival if any. While the physicians feel that this is the situation, they also face the pressures from the two sides of Carrie’s family, that is, Bob, the husband suggests that the wife be withdrawn from the life-support machines while Carrie’s parents, on the contrary, insists she be put on the care as they believe she will recover. Here, the physicians face the dilemma of telling Carrie’s parents that the chances of her survival is minimal. But when they do and Carrie’s parents agree with Bob’s suggestion, the question will be, “to whom is their duty of care?” There exists confusion over the distinction between brain stem death and vegetative state. As such, this makes it hard to get the consent to stop the care.
The idea of brain death is hardly discussed in public space. According to Veatch, R. M. (2015), brain death indicates death. At the same time, there are clear guidelines for determining brain death and the use of life-support machines in the high dependency unit allows the care to be withdrawn from clients who suffer brain death without recourse to the courts. However, due to many high profile cases regarding the subject, many persistent vegetative states have been lately reported in the previous years. The application to continue patients from care and treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) have been premised upon the far-fetched “miraculous recoveries” from comas. These cases yet minimal, they have exaggerated in the public eye, the opportunities of an individual’s recovery from a persistent vegetative state. Even when the facts are clear. Thus, the exaggeration is contrary to the unavoidable death due to asystole that happens within a few days after the client’s brain death. There are cases whereby the patients have suffered brain death but the patients’ family restrained the physicians from stopping the ventilator. In some cases, the intensive care unit is filled up forcing the hospital to transfer any other new critically ill patient to a different facility. That is one of the implications of this k...