A Viable Fetus

Autonomy can override beneficence when life-support is withdrawn (Prozgar, 2010). In addition, when a physician takes the position of withdrawing life-supporting equipment, the principle of non-maleficence is severed. Since helping patients die violates the physician’s virtue of duty to save lives,” distributed justice is served by releasing a room in the intensive care unit for a patient who has a higher chance of resolving their medical problems (Pozgar, G. 2010). There are so many inflict fuzzy gray areas and ideas about conflicting DNR policies that political disputes had to go to the courts to sort out the issues legally.

A baby deserves to experience and witness life’s beauties. If the mother tragically loses her life during childbirth, it is well worth it.

According to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, “In the United States, nearly thirteen percent of babies are born preterm, and many of these babies also have a low birth weight.” The baby may be put into the NICU for varies reasons. However, the most common reason that a child is put into the NICU is because he or she is

After declaring Jahi McMath brain dead, the doctors at the Children’s Hospital ordered her to be taken off mechanical ventilation. Her mother, Latasha Winkfield, refused to accept that her daughter was dead and incapable of recovering (du Toit & Miller, 2016). Winkfield believed her daughter was still alive because McMath was breathing and her heart was still beating (du Toit & Miller, 2016). McMath’s family disagreed with the doctors’ report and filed a lawsuit to prevent life support from being discontinued (Paola, 2014).

Babies born earlier, such as 25 weeks will need medical support in order to survive and are usually placed in incubator – designed to keep baby worm and free from infection. Premature babies are at a higher risk of developing, sight problems or learning difficulties.

The thin line between life and death has become an ethical issue many health care providers and the government have long tried to ignore. The understanding that life begins at birth, and ends when the heartbeat and breathing have ceased has long been deemed factual. Medical technologies have changed this with respirators, artificial defibrillators, and transplants (Macionis, 2009). “Thus medical and legal experts in the United States define death as an irreversible state involving no response to stimulation, no movement or breathing, no reflexes, and no indication of brain activity” (Macionis, 2009, p. 436).

Right now, thousands of children around the world are in a live or die situation, in which their mother decides whether to keep or to terminate them. There are multiple issues that Pro-Life and Pro-Choice argue about constantly trying to justify if abortion should be legal or Illegal. While the mother has rights, the fetus also has rights.

Aiding the death of infants is a much disputed controversy in healthcare. H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. provides an ethical view that there is a moral duty not to treat an impaired infant when this will only prolong a painful life or would only lead to a painful death. It is these individuals, like Engelhardt, who must defend this position against groups who consider that we have the ability to prolong the lives of impaired infants, thus we are obligated to do so.

The notion of capability to live, as applied to a fetus or a neonate, must be understood as having the sense of capability to live, albeit with help, even if it helps crucial for staying

From research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, experts have concluded premature newborns have to have at least 22 weeks in the womb before being able to survive on itself, well after most abortions are performed. Another well-founded line of reasoning from Pro-Life people is that, “Fetuses feel pain during some procedures.” Actually, according to a review by Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, "most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain perception." The cortex doesn’t function until over 26 weeks of gestation, long after almost all abortions happen. Some say that “abortion defies the word of God.” Remember: The United States has freedom of religion, and the US laws have to respect people of all spiritual

Most people believe that it is their right to be present during a loved-one’s resuscitation, should they so desire. Contrary to the fears of the medical community, family members who have been present during a resuscitation report that the experience was not traumatic for them and would in fact opt to witness it again. Also, being present seems to provide a sense of closure and security in knowing that everything possible was done to save their loved one’s life (Critchell et al 2007).

The concept fetus is used to denote the unborn human from the end of the eighth week after conception to the moment of birth, as distinguished from the earlier embryo (the product of conception from implantation in the uterus through the eighth week of development). A fetus contains all the organs and has the basic human form. (Rand)

The debate over abortion comes down to one essential issue — the moral status of the unborn

A Do not resuscitate (DNR) order is a legal document written by a licensed physician, which is developed in consultation with the patient, surrogate decision maker, and attending physician. This document indicates whether the patient will receive resuscitative care, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), or advanced medical directives, in the setting of cardiac and/or respiratory arrest. A DNR can also be referred as a no code when identifying a patient’s resuscitation status. If a patient has an existing DNR it allows the resuscitation team, taking care of the patient, to either withhold or stop any resuscitation measures, and therefore respect the patient’s wishes. Historically, DNR orders did not become active in the care of patients until 1974, when it was identified that patients who received CPR, and survived, had significant morbidities (Braddock & Derbenwick-Clark, 2014). Braddock and Derbenwick-Clark further noted, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommended that physicians, in consultation with the patient, family, and or surrogate, place on the patients chart when CPR was not indicated. This documentation is now what we refer to as the DNR order and has become the standard to allow autonomous respect for patients, and their families, to make informed medical decisions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the legal aspects, ethical issues, and the application surrounding the DNR order.

Also, the article talks about how every time the child went to the hospital, the child became weaker and weaker. I believe that 16 months is more than enough time to try many different procedures and if the child became weaker and weaker each time the decision should have became more and more clear to let the child die peacefully rather than suffering.