Case Description
The ethical situation that occurred in my practice involved an end-of-life decision for a patient in an adult gerontology acute care unit. The patient’s condition was not improving, and there was no prospect of improvement. The healthcare team, guided by the Texas Advance Directives Act, informed the family that they were going to remove life support within ten days. However, the patient’s daughter needed 11 days to arrive and was not able to say goodbye to her father when he was still technically alive.
Ethical and Legal Analysis
The case has both ethical and legal components. In the ethical realm, there was an issue of a family member not being able to see their relative for the last time while he was still alive. In the legal context, the healthcare team followed the guidelines set forth by the Texas Advance Directives Act, which allows the removal of life support when the hospital verifies that current care is futile (Sanchez, 2023). To do so, healthcare providers must provide the family with 10 days’ notice.
The category in which the case fit was the end-of-life decision. The patient benefited from the situation since his right to a dignified death was exercised (Monteiro, 2021). The daughter was hurt as she lost the last chance to see her father alive, even though he was unconscious. There were no outside benefits or influential factors related to the story. The Texas state law influencing the case was the Texas Advance Directives Act.
Potential Solutions
I think the most suitable plan regarding the issue would have been to wait for the daughter to arrive and say goodbye to her close friend. In the ethical realm, this would have reflected utilitarian ethics, which presupposes taking into account not only the patients’ well-being but also their families’ feelings (Mooren & Quante, 2020). I understand that waiting for one more day would have been a financial burden for the hospital, but it seems to me that such a resolution would have been the most relevant option.
References
Monteiro, F. J. (2021). End-of-life ethical dilemmas. In T. F. Heston & S. Ray (Eds.), Bioethics in medicine and society(pp. 29-46). Intech Open.
Mooren, N., & Quante, M. (2020). Utilitarianism and care at the end of life. In N. Emmerich, P. Mallia, B. Gordijn, & F. Pistoia (Eds.), Contemporary European perspectives on the ethics of end of life care (pp. 37-54). Springer.
Sanchez, K. (2023). The Texas Advance Directives Act: A (currently) useless but much needed tool for withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. Houston Law Review, 60(5).