Anatomy and Physiology 251L
The University of Southern Mississippi Nervous System
What is paraplegia? Paraplegia is the paralysis than can affect all or part of the bottom portion of your body, meaning the legs and pelvic organs. Paraplegia is a spinal cord injury that results from damage to the vertebrae, ligaments and disks (Mayo Clinic, 2016) For an injury to cause paraplegia one would have to suffer a traumatic injury to the spinal cord that may cause your spine to fracture, dislocate, crush, and even compress one or more of your vertebrae. Additionally, some extra damage can occur because of the bleeding and swelling around the spinal cord (Mayo Clinic, 2016). There are many ways a person can avoid getting a spinal …show more content…
Life support is used when your body can’t maintain vital functions of life. The ethical issues with life support that I will be discussing is the right to refuse medical interventions (NCBI, 2016). I believe a person that will need life support should have the decision whether they want to stay on life support or pull the plug. The dilemma comes when family tries to overrule the patient and their decisions about how they want to end their life. I feel as long as a person is competent to understand their rights and what would happen they should have the final say (NCBI, 2016). Some family members may not agree with that, because they are not ready for the family member to die, but it’s their choice unless written documentation that states, otherwise it’s not in their control. The ethical reason behind life support is whether a family member can try to contest the rights of the family member on life support. There are many ethical issues that can go with life support. Hospitals can say, it’s time to pull the plug and the family members want to hold out, just in case the family member on life support takes a turn for the better (NCBI, 2016). The patient and the family member should have the right to choose what happens in the event of life