Persistent vegetative state

The chapter 3, Comas: Karen Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan, and Terri Schiavo, introduces three new cases of patients facing a persistent vegetative state (PVS.) These cases discuss the ethical and political issues of keeping people in a vegetative state alive, being individuals who would never have a conscious life again. The first case began around the resolution of the Supreme Court of New Jersey about the removal of the ventilator to the PVS patient Karen Quinlan, in 1976. Her father waged a legal battle with the Supreme Court of New Jersey to have the right to disconnect the respirator that kept Karen alive, to which agreed with Quinlan's father. As Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan became a public case after being in an irreversible vegetative state. She was kept alive only through a feeding tube. Cruzan's family reached the Supreme Court of Justice of the United States to get the tube that fed her disconnected, which ruled that there was "no clear and convincing evidence" that Nancy did not want her life to be…

themselves are unethical as viewed through the ethical principle of Autonomy. Patients with directives that lead to a termination of their lives under chronic illnesses and states, conflict with Catholic teachings to sustain life. Therefore in catholic hospitals such directives may be ignored for the benefit of the patient until such time that it seems no longer beneficial to the patient. Many people create End of life directives to prevent themselves from living in a “compromised” state or from…

competent person wishing death requests procedures that can end their life. However, nonvoluntary euthanasia is executed when the patient is in a state…

Death and Legal Considerations “Death is both inevitable and irreversible. It is the one personal event that the individual can never report.”(Riley, 1983 p.192) Riley states in his Sociology Review Article, “Dying and the meanings of Death: Sociological Inquiries.” If I was forced to make an end of life decision I feel it would highly depend on the individual circumstance. In this paper for my final project I will look at problems that arise with end of life decisions, look at legal cases and…

Nancy cruzan was 26 years old when she got into this car accident where she lost control of her car while driving at night and she was thrown from the vehicle and landed face down in a water filled ditched. Paramedics found her with no vital signs when she got in the crash but they resuscitated her. She was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state , surgeons inserted a feeding tube for her long term care.In 1987 Cruzan's parents went to court to ask that the feeding tube be removed…

John was depressed after the funerals for Tommy and Laurel, and he watched Helena time to time when he wasn’t work. John always remember that day thinking of what he should of done differently. He thought their lives shouldn’t be in vain. So after months of debating, John decide to live off their dreams. But then he got a call from the hospital saying Helena awoke from the vegetative state. John drove over there and rush to her side, they talked and John explain his the whole five months sleep…

college and a few years after they married, the Schiavo’s moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. Terri had dealt with weight issues in the past and it was suspected that she struggled with bulimia. On February 25, 1990, Terri suffered a cardiac arrest as a result from a potassium imbalance (possibly caused from the bulimia). During the cardiac arrest, Terri’s brain was deprived of oxygen for a significant amount of time, leaving her in a coma throughout her hospitalization. She was eventually…

Physician assisted suicide, also know as PAS, has always been a very controversial topic. Physician assisted suicide has been exercised throughout history and still is today in a few states in America. These states include Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Montana, and Vermont. Physician assisted suicide is similar to euthanasia except instead of the physician performing the act of ending a life the patient does. At the patient 's request, a physician may help someone in extreme pain or suffering…

diagnosis Persistent Vegetative State, she spent almost fifteen years in bed, nourished by the feeding tube. Terry died in 2005 when following the court order, her feeding tube was removed. One of the ethical issues in Terry’s case involved a basic principle of autonomy. Terry did not leave any legal document where her wishes regarding medical treatment were revealed, nor did she appoint a health care proxy. Would Terri wish to continue living with the knowledge that until end of her life she…

That being so, my father and I furthered our conversation by discussing such issues that we found most important. The first was for CPR and calling 911. We both agreed that upon the conditions of our advanced directives: a progressive illness that will cause death, close to death and unlikely to recover, unable to communicate and unlikely for conditions to improve, and in a persistent vegetative state, then we deny forms of resuscitating life, CPR, or calling 911 for transportation. The topic…