1. “Explain the case in your own words.”
The case is about Terri Schiavo who was a woman that due to her medical condition involved to an entire nation.
She lived a normal life like any other until her life became upside down. Terri Schiavo had a Cardio Arrest on February 25, 1990, at St. Petersburg, Florida. The doctors managed to revive her after a tragedy unexpected. The only problem was that Terri Schiavo suffered a brain damage from a shortage of oxygen after the loss of consciousness she had. Approximately around 2 years, many doctors had tried many therapies that could help her bring her normal life back, but no improvements were seen in her. Her husband Michael Schiavo who was also her legal guardian decided at one point that Terri was not showing any progress and felt like she did not deserve to live the rest of her life as a “Persistent Vegetative State”. He decided to put her case into court to be able to remove her feeding tube. After many discussions in court, On April 24, 2001, they decided to take her feeding tube away. Many “appeals” and even the “government” including President George W. Bush signed an act to move Terri Schiavo case to the federal court. The final decision was made on March 18, 2005, disconnecting her feeding tube for good. Terri
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“Explain the substitute judgment rule, as it applies to the Terri Schiavo's case.”
The substitute judgment rule was that Michael Schiavo was responsible for any medical decisions on behalf of Terri because she was stated as a person who cannot make any decisions for herself and that is when he decided at one point to take her case to the court to remove her feeding tube.
3. “What does palliative care include? How was Terri assisted under this type of care?”
The palliative care included when people who have serious illnesses which doctors intended to do a variety of therapies on Terri Schiavo like working on her communication and having her to try physical therapy as well, but no improvement was
The smell of death and decay, emanated inside the trunk of a Pontiac Sunfire. A missing child; only to be reported 31 days after she went missing, found dead in a forest close to her home. And a mother who was accused of murder, who got off with no charges, even with evidence stacking against her. This all started with one 9-1-1 phone call from a concerned grandmother who has not seen her grandchild in a month. Casey Anthony was the main headline in all the newspapers, cable television, and social media. Over more than 140 million people sat and watched as the trial played on, and a verdict was reached. This case was the largest and most polarizing case that America has ever seen.
While the case was in the state of Washington, it was seen in the plaintiff's favor: Dr. Harold Glucksberg and Compassion In Dying. Because of this the state laws changed in support of doctor-assisted suicide. The state of Washington still opposed the idea of this so they ordered an appeal.
According to a doctor in the documentary, people are coming to the ICU’s to die. (Lyman et al, 2011) Due to the fact that technology to sustain life is available the decision to end life has become much more complicated yet more people die in hospitals then anywhere else. (Lyman et al, 2011) The story of Marthe the 86 year old dementia patient stood out to me upon viewing the documentary because I recently just had my great grandmother go through the same situation. (Lyman et al, 2011) Marthe entered the ICU and was intubated for two weeks while her family members decided whether to perform a tracheotomy or take her off life support. (Lyman et al, 2011) The family was having a tough time deciding due to the fact that the doctors could sustain Marthe’s life if they requested it. Marthe ended up being taken off the ventilator and to everyone’s surprise was able to breathe but, a day later she could no longer do so and now she has been on life support for a year. (Lyman et al, 2011) Another patient that I took particular interest in was John Moloney a 53 year old multiple myeloma patient who has tried every form of treatment with no success. (Lyman et al, 2011) Despite trying everything he still wanted treatment so he could live and go home with his family but ended up in
In February of 1990 a woman named Terri Schiavo collapsed at home suffering cardiac arrest in her home in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was resuscitated but had severe brain damage because she had no oxygen going to her brain for several minutes. Terri was severely brain damaged and in a vegetative state but could still breathe and maintain a heart beat on her own. After two and a half months and no signs of improvement, impaired vision, and the inability to move her arms and legs she needed a feeding tube to sustain her life since she seemed to be in a persistent vegetative state. For 2 years doctors attempted speech and physical therapy with no success. In 1998 Schiavos husband claimed she would not want to live in that quality of life without a prospect of recovery so he tried several times over the course of many years to pull the feeding tube so she could pass. Bob and Mary Schindler challenged and fought for a
Mr. Shiavo was doing his job as a caretaker for his wife, taking her to get the necessary treatment that she needed and required, and really and truly sticking by his wife in such a rough circumstance. He stated that "my wife had said she would never want to be kept alive if she were in a vegetative state". (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/schiavo/). He was just honoring what she had wanted to do if this type of situation would ever happen, and he was obeying what she wanted. I have to totally agree with him, and how he tried and did take care of Terry. It gets hard on families and also it can take a toll of them when there is a sick family member who is in need of 24 hour care. Ethically, I see that Michael was right; however I am also in limbo to where I think he could have turned Terry's custody over to her parents, even though he did honor what she wanted. Sometimes families find themselves in a comfort zone by trying to come to peace with there loved ones by sitting there with there loved ones while they are on the machine. I couldn't imagine this struggle between Terry's family and Michael.
In the New York Times Abby Goodnough and Maria Newman reports that on March 30 that the parents of Terri Schiavo latest appeal was turn down. It stated that one of the judges Stanley F. Birch, wrote that it was in his opinion the special law that was hastily passed by Congress on March 21 was unconstitutional. It was immediately signed by President Bush in hopes that it would help Terri’s parents. He says that it was unconstitutional and violated the principal of separation of powers. I understand under the federal law if there is no living will to determine who is to have custody of a person in this situation, automatically the decision making fall to a spouse or next in Kin. But in this situation where Mr. Schiavo never mention that Terri wanted to be taken off of the feeding tube until 1998, I can see why the law would be completely fair.
The case of Terri Schiavo began in the early morning hours February 25, 1990 in the home of Terri and Michael Schiavo. When Michael came home from work and found his wife unconscious. Ms. Schiavo has gone into a form of cardiac arrest brought on by hypokalemia, an imbalance in blood potassium levels. In this case low potassium levels had fo...
The facts of the case are now more readily available thanks to the internet. When the story first broke in 1992 the internet was still in its infancy. Most of the media coverage at the time came from print and television coverage and most of that was not comprehensive at all. The initial jury award of almost 3 million dollars was sensational, grabbing headlines all over the world. Now with the advent of the internet in its modern form the facts are coming out about what actually happened. It turns out that Mrs. Liebeck was actually injured far more seriously than most realize and received far less money than was actua...
Palliative care is medical or comfort care that reduces the severity of a disease or slows its progress, but does not provide a cure (Dreeben, 2007). Different people have different needs when life is ending. Working with the incurable may sound depressing but death is a certainty and what we do each day for these patients as physical therapist assistants, matters. Providing care effectively and appropriately has a huge impact on the patient, therefore acquiring the ability to comfort and care for a patient at such a critical stage in life, is an amazin...
Being in hospice care is a better alternative than being stuck in the hospital to try to avoid the unavoidable. Common misconceptions about Hospice could include that hospice makes life more miserable; however, a physician expressed his findings in Hospice,“You can only fail a patient if you fail to understand and respond to their needs. We may not be able to cure all of our patients, but if we can make them comfortable in the last moments of their lives, we will not have failed them”..Hospice care gradually emerged in the 1970s, when groups like the National Hospice Organization were formed “in response to the unmet needs of dying patients and their families for whom traditional medical care was no longer effective.”Herbert Hendin, an executive director of the American Suicide Foundations illustrates a story of a young man diagnosed with acute myelocytic leukemia and was expected to have only a few months before he died. He persistently asked the doctor to assist him, but he eventually accepted the medical treatment. His doctor told him he can use his time wisely to become close to his family. Two days before he died, Tim talked about what he would have missed without the opportunity for a
Politically this case is still praised all the time. On the 41st anniversary of this case, President Obama stated “We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to protecting a woman's access to safe, affordable health care and her constitutional right to privacy, including the right to reproductive freedom” . Abortion opponents make up the most significant element of the Republican Party. The abortion conflict has introduced an element into political discourse that is very ugly. A U.S. senator called for the execution of abortion providers and at least three states introduced the “justifiable homicide” laws which intend to cover killings committed in the defense of an “unborn child” however none of these laws have been passed to date . After the murder of George Tiller, an abortion doctor who was shot and killed in a Kansas church, abortion rights supporters in the U.S. Senate have not been able to pass a resolution condemning this act. Some people think that Roe v. Wade was a right to abortion before the American public was ready for it because there...
The Roe v. Wade case originated in the state of Texas in 1970 at the suggestion of Sarah Weddington an Austin attorney. Norma McCorvey otherwise known as "Jane Roe" was an unmarried pregnant woman seeking to overturn the anti-abortion law in the state of Texas. The lawsuit claimed that the statue was unconstitutionally vague and abridged privacy rights of pregnant women guaranteed by the first, fourth, fifth, ninth, and fourteenth amendments to the constitution. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade)
In 1971, Norma McCorvey or Jane Roe, filled a case against the district attorney of Dallas County, Henry Wade, because he enforced a Texas law that prohibited abortion unless the abortion was needed medically, to save the mother’s life. Being a single, pregnant woman , Roe did not have the choice to have an abortion because the pregnancy was not endangering her life. Plus, Roe could not afford to travel to have the operation done safely. As a result, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, two lawyers that graduated from the University of Texas Law School, claimed a lawsuit against the abortion laws in Texas because they violated Roe’s constitutional rights. Besides Roe’s two laywers, Hallford, a licensed physician, and a childless married couple known as the Does supported Roe’s case. The lawsuit against Wade was filed in a Texas Federal Court. The Texas Federal Court heard the case on December 13th, 1971 and again, on October 11th, 1972. After the examination of Weddington and Coffee’s argument against Jay Floyd’s, the lawyer for Wade during the first argument, and Robert C. Flower’s, the lawyer for Texas in the second argument, the court ruled in Roe’s favor by claiming that the law did violate the Constitution. Consequently, Wade appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The plaintiff is Jane Roe and the defendant is the district attorney of Dallas County. Jane Roe says that denying her the right for having an abortion violates the right of privacy guaranteed in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments. The district attorney of Dallas refuses to let her have abortion unless her life is in jeopardy. ...
In an effort to provide the standard of care for such a patient the treating physicians placed Ms. Quinlan on mechanical ventilation preserving her basic life function. Ms. Quinlan’s condition persisted in a vegetative state for an extended period of time creating the ethical dilemma of quality of life, the right to choose, the right to privacy, and the end of life decision. The Quilan family believed they had their daughter’s best interests and her own personal wishes with regard to end of life treatment. The case became complicated with regard to Karen’s long-term care from the perspective of the attending physicians, the medical community, the legal community local/state/federal case law and the catholic hospital tenants. The attending physicians believed their obligation was to preserve life but feared legal action both criminal and malpractice if they instituted end of life procedures. There was prior case law to provide guidance for legal resolution of this case. The catholic hospital in New Jersey, St. Clare’s, and Vatican stated this was going down a slippery slope to legalization of euthanasia. The case continued for 11 years and 2 months with gaining national attention. The resolution was obtained following Karen’s father being granted guardianship and ultimately made decisions on Karen’s behalf regarding future medical