Euthanasia and "Futile Care"
Imagine visiting your 85-year-old mother in the hospital after she has a debilitating stroke. You find out that, in order to survive, she requires a feeding tube and antibiotics to fight an infection. She once told you that no matter what happened, she wants to live. But the doctor refuses further life-sustaining treatment. When you ask why, you are told, in effect, "The time has come for your mother to die. All we will provide is comfort care."
Sound far-fetched? It's not. It's already happening.
Just as doctors once hooked people up to machines against their will, now
many bioethicists advocate that doctors be permitted to refuse
life-sustaining treatment that a patient wants but that they deem "futile"
or "inappropriate."
Alarmingly, hospitals in California and throughout the country have begun
to implement these "futile-care" policies that state, in effect: "We
reserve the right to refuse service."
Medical and bioethics journals for several years kept up a drumbeat
advocating the implementation of medical futility policies that hospitals
-- for obvious reasons -- don't publicize. The mainstream news media have
generally ignored the threat.
As a consequence, members of the public and their elected representatives
remain in the dark as "futilitarians" become empowered to hand down
unilateral death sentences.
Indeed, futile-care policies are implemented so quietly that no one knows
their extent. No one has made a systematic study of how many patients'
lives have been lost or whether futile-care decisions were reached
according to hospital policies or the law.
The idea behind futile care goes like this: The patient wants life-
sustaining treatment; the physician does not believe the quality of the
patient's life justifies the costs to the health institution or the
physical and emotional burdens of care; therefore, the doctor is entitled
to refuse further treatment (other than comfort care) as "futile" or
"inappropriate."
Treatments withheld under this policy might include antibiotics to treat
infection, medicines for fever reduction, tube feeding and hydration,
kidney dialysis or ventilator support.
Of course, physicians have never been -- nor should they be -- required to
provide medical interventions that provide no medical benefit.
For example, if a patient demands chemotherapy to treat an ulcer, the
physician should refuse. Such a "treatment" would have no medical benefit.
But this kind of "physiological futility," as it is sometimes called, is
not what modern futile-care theory is all about.
A war starting was really overwhelming for everybody but there was not time to complain, but to take actions the government quickly realized that with men fighting in the front line a demand had to be satisfied. Political and social leaders ...
Freedom Rides, Vietnam, and Social activism among the youths of America have left the 60’s with a very profound effect on our society. Without question, the decade of the 1960’s was one of the most controversial in American History. Throughout this period of social unrest, anti-war attitudes were gaining prevalence in a peace-loving subculture, and individuals began to question certain aspects of governmental policy and authority. This was the decade of peace and war, optimism and despair, cultural turbulence and frustration.
The 1960s was a decade overloaded with signifiant life changing events. From Martin Luther King Jr. to the Vietnam War, the reign of Muhammad Ali and the Beatles reaching to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the moon landing. The result of these history changing events: a new culture emerging at the beginning of the Vietnam war in the early 60s. A radical movement would start to take off called Popular Culture. First witnessed after the Industrial revolution when amusement and entertainment got more and more appealing to society, the 60s was an era when everything changed and nothing would be the same again.
It is important that people are in control of what happens to them while under the care of their doctor, especially if they're alert and aware. A provider cannot force treatment; if a patient is unconscious, the situation changes because competency and informed consent are not present.
Legislative bodies enacted laws restricting the employment of married women. Labor, government, and the mass media all joined in a campaign urging females to refrain from taking jobs. And the overwhelming majority of average citizens--including women--showed little interest in modifying the existing distribution of sexual roles. (Chafe 135)
Vietnam war has been one of the most deadliest and expensive wars to date. Not only it resulted in massive casualties and financial losses, it also made a long lasting effect on American psyche. Following the withdrawal of US combat forces in 1973, majority of Americans tried to overlook what had transpired for the past decade. It served as a devastating blow to American image both domestically and abroad. Vietnam war was heavily protested, misunderstood and highly controversial, and although many question the necessity of the invasion, yet it has continued to shape the way American foreign policies and military have evolved over the years. While Vietnam was the first war to be comprehensively televised still it had a negative stigma to it that was exploited by the media and Hollywood. Soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, willingly or unwillingly were neglected and scorned.
Most believe that World War II benefited women in the workforce. But did it really? World War II created war-related jobs and caused a large amount of men and voluntary enlistees. During World War II women played a part in the workforce in a way that was unpredicted in the U.S. history. The two pre existing factors of moral rights and society’s stereotypes collided with one another as the traditional female gender roles were diminished from war opportunities. Two arguments arise from this upset of social norms: a milestone for women’s experience and a lack of immediate and long-lasting change in gender roles after war. World War II served as a milestone for women in work. One aspect that World War II brought change in society’s gender roles. There was the shortage of manpower needed to fill the jobs created by war. As men were enlisted into the war, men were forced to leave their current jobs which left open opportunities for the women to fill these positions. During the war men had two options in the direction that they wanted to move: battling in war, or higher end jobs that were being abandoned due to the war. Either way, men were leaving jobs that needed to be filled in some way. This gave opportunities for women to fill these open positions in the workforce. In the book The Paradox of Change:American Women in the 20th Century, a man named William Chafe asserts that the female work force increased by 50% throughout World War II (121 Chafe). Not only were women gaining jobs at home, but the war created jobs that women would be able to pursue The United States Employment Service said that 80% of the jobs in war could easily be filled by women (Cafe 122).
Drugs have been influencing the ideas, culture, and music of America for ages. Illicit narcotics have left the Union in a state of immense debt. Anti-drug policies have been dumping billions upon billions of dollars in prevention, punishment, and rehabilitation. From the roaring twenties, to the prohibition, drugs have always been fought (Bailey). Most times, the drugs start off as medicines and end up being harmful (Morris). Perhaps, the most prominent and influential eras of drug use in America are the two decades of the 60’s and twenty years later, the 80’s. It may very well be that these two decades molded America into what it is now.
With the post war baby boom of the 1940s resulting in a huge shift in age demographic, the 60s became a decade belonging to the new wave of youths. Liberated and hedonistic, this affluent generation shunned the values of their parents,
A recent poll founded by the Canadian Medical Association found that “only one in five doctors surveyed. . . said they would be willing to perform euthanasia if the practice were legalized. . . Twice as many – 42 percent – said they would refuse to do so” (Kirkey 1). Euthanasia is defined as giving a patient the right to die early with a physician’s assistance, and the legalization of this practice is being considered by lawmakers in many countries, including the United States. Accordingly, 42 percent of doctors in Canada are on the right side of this debate. Euthanasia should not be legalized because it violates society’s views that life is sacred, creates economic pressure for doctors, and for those countries that have legalized it, their laws are not specific enough to fully protect patients.
For the past century, the United States of America has made countless advancements in technology, medicine, and many other fronts. As a society, it has advanced at an incredible rate, becoming a major world power in an incredibly short period of time. The biggest barriers that America is working on are currently taking place within its own borders; civil rights and the battle for equality have men and women of every race up and arms. Specifically, the fight against sexism is the most modern struggle in America. Discrimination against women is harmful to both men and women; it holds women back into a useless position and forces men to take the brunt of the work. Men are expected to work, but women are almost expected not to, and instead "be nothing more than dangling, decorative ornaments--non-thinking and virtually non-functional” (Chisholm 4). There is progress to be made in the American society in its attitude and treatment of women. Gender inequality continues to be a social problem in the business, family, and personal lives of women.
As patients come closer to the end of their lives, certain organs stop performing as well as they use to. People are unable to do simple tasks like putting on clothes, going to the restroom without assistance, eat on our own, and sometimes even breathe without the help of a machine. Needing to depend on someone for everything suddenly brings feelings of helplessness much like an infant feels. It is easy to see why some patients with terminal illnesses would seek any type of relief from this hardship, even if that relief is suicide. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is where a physician would give a patient an aid in dying. “Assisted suicide is a controversial medical and ethical issue based on the question of whether, in certain situations, Medical practioners should be allowed to help patients actively determine the time and circumstances of their death” (Lee). “Arguments for and against assisted suicide (sometimes called the “right to die” debate) are complicated by the fact that they come from very many different points of view: medical issues, ethical issues, legal issues, religious issues, and social issues all play a part in shaping people’s opinions on the subject” (Lee). Euthanasia should not be legalized because it is considered murder, it goes against physicians’ Hippocratic Oath, violates the Controlled
The 1940’s was an interesting and critical time for the United States of America. World War II began in the late 1930’s and moved on into the 1940’s. The United States Army joined in 1941 and “when the United States entered World War II, every aspect of life in America was affected by the conflict” (The 1940’s). New opportunities arose for women because of all the men out at war, so women had the chance to show off their skills and capabilities. They operated machines in factories and worked with heavy artillery. If a person did not fight the war for their country, they made weapons for the brave soldiers. This caused a drastic increase in the growth of the economy in the United States.
...x hats, and buckle shoes, with gold or silver heels to match the buckles. There wasn’t just one style that everyone stuck to, the idea was to find your own style and make it an expression of the self, and make it yours. Not so much stress was put on status or wealth, people were more consumed in making their clothes a liberation of their generation. Despite how much the world had previously evolved, the 1960s was the biggest shift into a passive aggressive rebellion the United States had yet to see.
First of all, euthanasia saves money and resources. The amount of money for health care in each country, and the number of beds and doctors in each hospital are limited. It is a huge waste if we use those money and resources to lengthen the lives of those who have an incurable disease and want to die themselves rather than saving the lives of the ones with a curable ailment. When we put those patients who ask for euthanasia to death, then the waiting list for each hospital will shorten. Then, the health care money of each country, the hospital beds, and the energy of the doctors can be used on the ones who can be cured, and can get back to normal and able to continue contributing to the society. Isn’t this a better way of using money and resources rather than unnaturally extend those incurable people’s lives?