Ethics and the Professional Unit 4 Town Hall Seminar

White House Obesity Plan Mixes Carrots With Sticks

Bioethics defined  ethics of medical research and treatment: the study of the moral and ethical choices faced in medical research and in the treatment of patients, especially when the application of advanced technology is involved.

Bioethics  In bioethics, as much as or maybe more than any other issue-area, the choices one makes are belief-system driven. Religion plays an enormous role in what people find ethical concerning suicide, abortion, and the like.

Euthanasia  painless killing to relieve suffering: the act or practice of killing somebody who has an incurable illness or injury, or of assisting that person to die. Euthanasia is illegal in most countries.

Legality of Euthanasia in U.S.  Euthanasia is illegal in most of the United States. It is legal in the states of Washington, Oregon, Montana and to a limited extent in Texas.

Euthanasia  Is it ethical to assist someone to commit suicide, and if so, when?  Is it ethical to put someone out of their misery with a “mercy-killing,” and if so, when?

Question  Should we put to death critically injured or sick people, who cannot, under the current state of medical art, ever regain normalcy?

Question  Was the death of Terri Schiavo a mercy-killing? Or was it, as some argue, “judicial murder”?

Terri Schiavo Case  Terri Schiavo collapsed on February 25, 1990, resulting in 15 years of institutionalization. Her legal case, from 1998 to 2005, concerned whether Terri, diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), should live or die.

Terri Schiavo Case  In 1998 Terri's husband, Michael, petitioned the Sixth Circuit Court of Florida to remove her feeding tube pursuant to Florida Statutes Section He was opposed by Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, who argued that Terri was conscious. The court determined that Terri would not wish to continue life-prolonging measures.

Terri Schiavo Case  On April 24, 2001 Terri's feeding tube was removed for the first time, only to be reinserted several days later. Over the next four years, the pro-life movement, disability rights groups, members of the Florida Legislature, the United States Congress, and the President of the United States became involved in the case. In March 2005 President Bush returned to Washington D.C. from a vacation to sign legislation designed to keep Terri alive, making the case a major national news story in its final month.

Terri Schiavo Case  In all, the Schiavo case involved 14 appeals and numerous motions, petitions, and hearings in the Florida courts; five suits in federal district court; Florida legislation struck down by the Supreme Court of Florida; a subpoena by a congressional committee to qualify Terri for witness protection; federal legislation (the Palm Sunday Compromise); and four denials of certiorari from the Supreme Court of the United States. The local court's decision to disconnect Terri was carried out on March 18, Terri died at a Pinellas Park hospice on March 31.

Assisted Suicide  Should we allow people in unbearable pain end their own life? Should we allow doctors to help them?

Assisted Suicide Defined  suicide facilitated by caregiver or physician: the suicide of a patient, usually somebody who is terminally ill, that is aided by a caregiver or especially a physician, by the express wish and consent of the patient.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian  Jack Kevorkian born May 28, 1928) is an American pathologist, right-to-die activist, painter, composer, and instrumentalist. He is best-known for publicly championing a terminal patient's right to die via physician-assisted suicide; he claims to have assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He famously said that "dying is not a crime".

Dr. Jack Kevorkian  On the November 22, 1998, broadcast of 60 Minutes, Kevorkian allowed the airing of a videotape he had made on September 17, 1998, which depicted the voluntary euthanasia of, 52, who was in the final stages of ALS. After Youk provided his fully informed consent (a sometimes complex legal determination made in this case by editorial consensus) on September 17, 1998, Kevorkian himself administered a lethal injection.  This was highly significant, as all of his earlier clients had reportedly completed the process themselves. During the videotape, Kevorkian dared the authorities to try to convict him or stop him from carrying out assisted suicides. This incited the prosecuting attorney to bring murder charges against Kevorkian, claiming he had single-handedly caused the death.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian  On March 26, 1999, Kevorkian was charged with first-degree homicide and the delivery of a controlled substance (administering a lethal injection to Thomas Youk).  Kevorkian's license to practice medicine had been revoked eight years previously; he was not legally allowed to possess the controlled substance.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian  The Michigan jury found Kevorkian guilty of second-degree homicide. It was proven that he had directly killed a person because Youk was not physically able to kill himself.  Youk, unable to assist in his suicide, agreed to let Kevorkian kill him using controlled substances. The judge sentenced Kevorkian to serve 10–25 years in prison

After Prison for Dr. Jack Kevorkian  On January 15, 2008, Kevorkian gave his largest public lecture since his release from prison, speaking to a crowd of 4,867 people at the University of Florida.  The St. Petersburg Times reported that Kevorkian expressed a desire for assisted suicide to be "a medical service" for willing patients. "My aim in helping the patient was not to cause death", the paper quoted him as saying. "My aim was to end suffering. It's got to be decriminalized."

Eugenics Position Paper  For this assignment, imagine you are the head of research at a large urban hospital associated with a major university. The hospital has the chance to hire a doctor who is doing ground-breaking but controversial research on the cloning of humans. Specifically, he is known for creating “spare parts” children. Here is how it works:  In a few cases where parents have had one child with a serious disease, they have used in vitro fertilization to create embryos so that they can have a second child that can act as a future, tailor-made blood or bone marrow donor. When the “spare parts” child is born, he or she will be healthy and can help his or her older brother or sister stay well on an “as-needed” basis by donating the needed blood or marrow. The potential exists to use the child to donate other organs that require a genetic match, such as kidneys. The hospital’s Board of Trustees, comprised of doctors, lawyers, academics, and clergy is divided on whether the hospital should hire the doctor.  Assignment Write a position paper in which you argue whether or not to hire the doctor.

Final Project: Project Outline & Annotated Bibliography  For your Final Project this week, complete and submit your annotated bibliography and project outline. For more information on how to write an annotated bibliography and project outline, refer back to the "Final Project" page in Unit 3.  Be sure to submit both assignments to the appropriate Dropbox by the end of Unit 4.

Questions

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