The Principles Of Biomedical Ethics By Beauchamp And Child

Since Beauchamp and Childress wrote The Principles of Biomedical Ethics in 1977, patient autonomy, justice, non-maleficence and beneficence have been accepted as the four major medical principles (Murgic, 2015). In my opinion, autonomy is the hardest principle to implement especially in end-of-life care. I am reflecting on the Charlie Gard case where a healthy baby boy was born and it was soon discovered he had a rare genetic mutation that affected his brain, his musculature and most other major organs. The health care team reviewed the potential outcomes for this baby and decided that the best option was to allow him to “die with dignity”, remove life support and not pursue any untested experimental treatment. This could have been the end …show more content…
A study showed that parents decision making relies on a lot more factors than medical data (Carroll, 2012). In fact, when parents were asked to identify what influenced their decision making they were most likely to cite spirituality and a sense of duty to do everything possible for their child. Parents have a more complicated investment in the child than the medical team and may not be able to clearly look at the medical diagnosis, prognosis and potential outcome for the child. I believe the parents’ wishes should be considered along with a more objective fact based decision come to by the healthcare team with a critical eye towards the quality of life sustained by the infant.

According to a literature review on end-of-life care in the newborn (Willems, 2014), initial treatment is required for most ill newborns in order to better understand the prognosis for the child. Then continuing treatment is conditional on an individual basis. Actions should always be taken in the child’s best interest. In Charlie’s case, the care team believed that withdrawing life support and providing palliative care was in his best interest. The parents merely petitioned for a little more time with their new