End of Life Care

• Close call in death ruling of potential organ donor

• How Mom’s Death Changed My Thinking About End-of-Life Care

• Starting the debate on end of life

  Close call in death ruling of potential organ donor

It seems counterintuitive that doctors would rather take organs out of a dying organ donor than possibly extend his life. A California man, John Foster, was pronounced brain-dead by two doctors independent of each other, and the hospital was ready to pull the plug. When the patients daughter saw the 2nd doctor come in, spend no more than 5 minutes with the patient, and pronounced him brain-dead by simply shining a light into his eyes, she knew something fishy was going on.

A third doctor was called in, spend a little less than an hour with the patient, and noticed he still had a gag and cough reflex, both of which are signs a patient is not brain-dead. It must also be noted that the patient was on the organ donation list, and was only two signatures away from donating all of his organs.

The doctors are now suspected of wrongfully declaring the patient brain-dead in order to have his organs removed to be given to patients awaiting them. We now are alarmed that this type of malpractice is a more widespread occurrence than we may think. Doctors may be pronouncing loved-ones legally dead while they really aren’t, just so they can remove their organs and put them inside somebody else.

How Mom’s Death Changed My Thinking About End-of-Life Care

 Charles Orstein’s mother Harriet was sent into a coma after her heart stopped while doctors were inserting a nasogastric tube. She was hooked up to a breathing machine, had a feeding tube inserted,  and was given a constant iv drip of medication to stabilize her blood pressure. Obviously this all costs a whole lot of money, on top of the cost to even be admitted in a hospital room. So Charles started wondering if end of life care is really worth it. He was really skeptical that she wouldn’t make it out of her coma because she had survived several accidents prior, but test after test seemed to solidify the reality that she wasn’t coming back.

Charles and his family had a decision to make, unplug her and fulfill her wishes, or prolong her treatment at a chance of a recovery. Ultimately they unplugged Harriet and she went very peacefully, but this situation left Charles thinking. End of life care is a very expensive ordeal and Charles was wondering if he had make the wrong decision in keeping her on life support for two extra days while he tried to make a decision about his mother.  Ultimately Charles called an expert and asked him if he made the wrong decision. The expert agreed with his decision and said he would had still backed him if he had left her on life support for several more weeks.

Although I understand it’s extremely hard to part with loved ones, I believe there is a part of everybody who wants to keep somebody ‘alive’ for as long as possible, sending hospital bills through the roof just for the chance to be with the person for a few weeks longer. I believe that it is a much more financially sound choice to listen to the doctors diagnoses and make a choice based upon that diagnosis. If it is not expected of the patient to make it, then don’t prolong the inevitable.

Starting the debate on end of life

This article lays out the foundation for the debate, saying that a vast majority of American’s are senior citizens or quickly approaching that title. With the baby boomers becoming of age, that now leaves us with an important question, Do we have the right to die? Physician assisted suicide is only legal in a few states right now, but it is a topic of major importance. Many believe that a patient should have the right to die, and I do too. Life is something that belongs to the individual, not to a judge, or a doctor, and if I was terminally sick and wanted to end my suffering, then by God I should be able to do just that.

1. Working Hypothesis 1

If  a patient is able to say they want their life to end at any point of terminal disease, they should be able to be put to rest. 

1a. Working Hypothesis 2

There needs to be a point where someone doesn’t have the right state of mind to make a decision regarding something as important as life, that line needs to be drawn before the illness reaches terminal state. 

2. Topics for Smaller Papers

Since as part of the semester’s work, you’ll produce short arguments that stand on their own but contribute to your overall research, begin to identify what those papers might look like.

Explain How a Term or Category is Understood or Misunderstood, Used or Misused, how Related things differ, or how Unrelated things are similar
(Definition/Classification Argument)
See the Model for an example of an argument of this type.

Explore a Causal Relationship Essential to your research
(Cause/Effect Argument)
Again, see the Model for an example.

Reveal a Counterargument to be flawed
(Rebuttal Argument)
There’s no example of this argument type in the Model. If there were, it would be, for example, a stinging attack on the argument that personal freedom to opt out of vaccination trumps the public health necessity of virtually universal vaccination.

3. Current State of the Research Paper

Describe in a brief paragraph how you’re feeling so far about the progress you’ve made, how your opinions have changed (or solidified), and what you anticipate will be your eventual outcome.