The human body consists of complex organs that carry out complicated functions to ensure that a person stays alive. Life support is a unique medical procedure that keeps an individual alive when certain functions and processes in the human body fail. The procedure can only be removed once the body is ready to take over once again. The discussion will analyze various ethical and moral aspects in limiting life support and the important considerations that arise when contemplating limiting life support.
Limiting life support are processes whereby certain medical interventions are not given to patients due to the expectation that they will die as a result. The choice to either withhold or withdraw life support treatment is a presents a challenging situation for health workers, patient's, and their family members too. The moral approach that is subscribed by many people when a patient's life is nearing the end is that all manner of treatments and interventions should be taken to prevent death as asserted by Curtis and Vincent (2010). Some people also argue that the moral route to undertake during such a scenario is to forgo the life support treatment especially when the harm presented outweigh the benefits the patient is achieving from the procedure. The first ethical consideration in limiting life is on autonomous decision making. Individuals have a right to determine whether to withhold or withdraw the life support procedure. However, there are some limitations to autonomy as the physician has a role to consider what benefits or harms the patient. The physician has an ethical duty to provide detailed information concerning the benefits, limitations, and disadvantages of the procedure according to by Olsen et al . (2010).
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The family members of the incapacitated patient can be called upon to act as proxy decision makers. When they are presented with such a duty, they are supposed to put their interests aside and make a decision that will serve the best interest of the patient. The physician and other medical workers have an ethical duty to analyze the implication the life support treatment may be having on the hospital resources available. They have a responsibility of addressing incidences of unnecessary and inequitable distribution of medical resources by either withholding or withdrawing the life support treatment.
Concerning the considerations that arise when contemplating life support, the hope for recovery is the first point. Physicians and health professionals will advise stopping the procedure when the organs are unable to function properly on their own therefore the patient cannot recover. The process can be very harmful to the patient and at the same time proving to be costly. If the patient under life support treatment is of unsound or unconscious mind, the doctors and the close family members have an obligation to decide when the treatment ends. The patient's prior will may also be a consideration in the determination of whether to withdraw or withhold life support. The age of the patient under such a treatment can also be considered in deciding whether to limit or not. The decision to withdraw the life support procedure may come faster in older patients as compared to younger patients as pointed out by Wellesley and Jenkins (2009). Finally, the futility of the treatment will also be a consideration. This means when the procedure does not produce its initial clinical desires such producing more harm to the patient.
In conclusion, several ethical implications surround the issue of limiting life support. The decision to either withdraw or withhold the procedure has various ethical and moral facets that present a dilemma to the physician and the family members of the patient. Others view that the procedure only functions to prolong death while others people believe that health care providers have the mandate to do everything possible to ensure that the patient survives.
References
Curtis, J. R., & Vincent, J. L. (2010). Ethics and end-of-life care for adults in the intensive care unit. The Lancet , 376 (9749), 1347-1353.
Olsen, M. L., Swetz, K. M., & Mueller, P. S. (2010, October). Ethical decision making with end-of-life care: palliative sedation and withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 85, No. 10, pp. 949-954). Elsevier.
Wellesley, H., & Jenkins, I. A. (2009). Withholding and withdrawing life‐sustaining treatment in children. Pediatric Anesthesia , 19 (10), 972-978.
