Ethics

PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS

11/22/2013

Heart pumps create Life-or-Death decisions in an individual life someone who possesses heart problems or the actual heart starts to fail whether you become an elder or hereditary. A 62 year- old that went through bypass surgery and had two heart attacks was in desperate hope to live and has a surgically implanted heart pump which is keeping him alive. It has caused many infections, kidney failure and other complications along with months in the hospital. He sleeps a great deal, eats poorly, walks little and needs help to go the bathroom. He complains of significant pain and the patient would no longer wish to live in his current state which would require them to turn off the device and he would die within hours. The man requests to shut off the pump would this be ethical of the doctor following the patients request? In this matter in my opinion if we did not have technology the way we do this man would not be alive and should be thankful for being able to expand his life , but on the other hand who would want to live in pain constantly just to live another day. I would think it would be ethical for the doctor to respect the patient’s wishes and the patient being alert and aware of the consequences in turning off the pump. I could feel the guilt the doctor may have by removing the patient’s heart and how it may affect him because his job is to save lives not let someone die.

There are also cases where there are patients who go under emergency surgery and have no choice in the matter of receiving this pump and wake up in shock or not knowing how to cope with what happened. This may have been the only solution to keep the patient alive and the doctors and nurses were only doing their job. What is wrong in this situation is I believe the patient should be able to decide if they do not want the device or die just as they are supposed to. Even the patients who may of went through emergency surgery to decide if they would...