Category / Case Studies / End of Life Ethics
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The Case of Pat: Unprepared to Talk About Dying
Pat B. had never talked with her father about dying. Even when he was older and had remarried after her mother’s death, there seemed no opportunity conducive for such a talk.
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The Case of Ophelia: Conflicting Values in the Placement of Violent Teenager with Mental Disability
Ophelia is fifteen years old, nearly six feet tall, and weighs 160 pounds. She has cognitive disabilities and has a history of violence against others. Ophelia’s mother was addicted to crack, and she abandoned Ophelia when the child was five years old.
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The Case of Nancy Cruzan
A thirty-year-old accident victim suffered lack of oxygen to her brain for six to twenty minutes. She was in a persistently comatose and vegetative state, sustained by a gastronomy feeding tube, although her respiration and circulation were normal. The opinion of medical professionals was that she could live thirty-years. She now lies in a Missouri state hospital at the state’s expense.
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The Case of Jack: What are the Limits of a Community’s Right to Know?
Scrutinizing the Individual:
What are the limits of a community’s right to know? -
The Case of Immigrant Populations: Cultural Competence in Health Care
Delivering health care to non-English speaking immigrant populations requires knowledge and appreciation of the patient’s culture. Acquiring the skills to bridge the two worlds calls for self-awareness by the practitioner and a commitment to cultural competence by the organization.
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The Case of Herman: Rejecting Doctors Orders
Herman, a fifty-five-year-old farmer, has come into the office of Dr. X complaining of an increase in the symptoms of a chronic problem.
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The Case of Helga Wanglie – Futile Treatment
Does the suggestion of withdrawal of life-sustaining technologies reflect moral decay in our culture?
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The Case of Ginger: Autism and Blood Cancer Treatments
A 30-year-old woman, “Ginger,” is in the clinic, having been diagnosed several years ago with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS, a blood disorder). There is a high chance that the disease will progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), with lower chance of survival, so physicians had started chemotherapy.
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The Case of Freda: Nursing Staff in Moral Distress When Patient’s Wishes Not Followed
Freda is a thirty-two-year-old woman in an advanced fixed stage of multiple sclerosis. Freda’s inability to swallow has caused her to lose weight to the point that she is clinically malnourished. Freda’s mother insists on insertion of a gastric feeding tube, which puts the nursing staff in a high state of moral distress.
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The Case of a 20-Month-Old Boy
A 20-month-old Puerto Rican boy was admitted to the inpatient unit for failure to thrive associated with a decrease in appetite. The mother suspects it is empacho. Assumptions are important in ethical analysis. If you do not believe there is such an illness as empacho, how do you relate to the parents of this child?
