Important Non-Vital Organs
This course creates a good opportunity to identify various organs in the human body and distinguish them functionally. There is a list of vital organs that are not considered vital because it is possible to live without them. For example, people need their eyes to see and receive about 90% of the information. Still, this organ is not vital, and individuals continue living even if it fails. The reproductive system is also an essential organ with worth for the next generation, not at the individual level.
Functional Description of Vital Organs and Exceptions
The human body has several vital organs, the work and functioning of which define living quality. The brain controls motor skills, vision, and other processes, and the brain stem wires the nervous system to maintain involuntary activities like breathing and circulation. Both lungs supply oxygen to the body, and the heart provides blood circulation to pump blood through vessels to add more oxygen.
The liver is a vital organ in metabolism that stores vitamins and synthesizes proteins. As well as the pancreas, stomach, and large/small intestines, the liver contributes to healthy digestion, which is critical for humans. Finally, two kidneys should work properly to remove toxins from the body.
The bioethical analysis underlines the possibility of temporary substitution for some failing organs in a healthy person, provoking certain exceptions (Cioffi, 2016). For example, a ventilator can temporarily perform the functions of the lungs, and dialysis is adequate for people with kidney failure. People have two lungs and two kidneys, meaning one can live with one of these organs to complete their functions. Thus, natural or mechanical substitution creates new exceptions in the functional description of vital organs.
Life Without a Vital Organ
Today, a “yes/no” answer can be offered to the question of whether living without vital organs is possible. On the one hand, a person cannot live without the brain and the heart, which are essential for maintaining life. When both lungs or kidneys fail, it is also impossible to continue living. On the other hand, today’s technological progress offers many effective substitutions, including a prosthetic material for the heart or the brain, or hemodialysis for the kidneys. Thus, if there is no medical or technical help, the failure of vital organs initiates the death process, but people can be saved if appropriate practices are applied.
Assisting vs. Substituting
Assisting and substituting practices are highly developed with the primary purpose of helping people live if some organs fail. However, there is a particular distinction between them from the point of view of bioethical analysis. According to Cioffi (2016), assisting vital organs is a standard medical intervention when clinical resources should be used, and it is a bioethical obligation to assist vital organs. Substituting vital organs is characterized by elaborate clinical equipment and extraordinary means to prevent organ failure (Cioffi, 2016). However, bioethically, people are not morally obliged to substitute these organs because they can naturally fail soon.
Assisting and Substituting Practices
Many practices aim to assist or substitute vital organs, regardless of the existing bioethical principles. A dialysis machine is necessary for kidney substitution to filter the patient’s blood through a specific filtering system and pump clean (free from toxins) blood into the human body. So, dialysis is a standard clinical practice that helps substitute for the kidneys to complete their bodily functions if the patient has some acute pathological conditions.
The lungs are critical for people to breathe, and respirators and ventilators are two common patient interventions. A respirator assists breathing when the lungs do most of it, while a ventilator directs oxygen infusion to the lungs, meaning it can assist or substitute for the vital organ. Respirators are necessary for the patient to get extra oxygen, meaning assisting, and ventilators are the machines that assist and substitute the lungs’ function to deliver oxygen. Monitoring is required to see if the lungs respond to the offered intervention, and if the patient is intubated on the ventilator for an extended period, tracheotomy is applied.
A tracheotomy is a hole in the throat to ensure oxygen directly reaches the lungs, which the ventilator, in this case, substitutes for. The heart performs several functions, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is used to assist or substitute the failing heart, depending on the setting. CPR substitutes its function if the heart stops, but there is no ethical obligation to do it. CPR can also assist the heart in restoring compressions and keeping blood flowing.
Ethical and Religious Directives, Part Five: Summary
People develop personal attitudes toward death and care at the end of life. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (2018) introduces specific issues in care for dying or seriously ill patients, addressing the confidence of faith. Providing medical care with the help of modern technologies is indispensable to supporting life and avoiding suffering.
It is a direct human responsibility to preserve life and glorify God, but it is never absolute because people do not own their lives. Thus, life-prolonging procedures can be rejected if they are burdensome. Following the Catholic church principles, euthanasia and suicide will never be morally acceptable because even the most severely ill individuals may recover or, at least, retain their dignity.
Unconsciousness: Definition and States
There are situations when a person is unaware of self and the environment, known as an unconscious state. The primary functional definition of unconsciousness is a lack of response to painful stimuli. Depending on the cause of damage and the patient’s condition, different states of unconsciousness exist.
A coma is an unconscious state characterized by a complete lack of awareness when a person appears to sleep, but others cannot wake them up. Although a persistent vegetative state (PVS) is similar to a coma, it is not the same because recovery from the latter with cognition is possible, and PVS patients return to the state of wakefulness (open eyes) without cognition.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is another unconscious state resulting from a head blow and leading to mild (loss of consciousness for a short period) or severe (loss of consciousness for several hours) complications. When the brain does not get oxygen, brain hypoxia is diagnosed, provoking an impaired level of consciousness when people cannot follow verbal commands. Temporary loss of consciousness is also possible because of epileptic seizures, which are abnormal, excessive, generalized, synchronous neuronal activities, and syncope. The main difference between these states is that seizures are abnormal electrical patterns, and syncope is a sudden drop in blood pressure.
Benefit vs. Burden
Bioethically, the issues of burden and benefit are closely related to the decisions people make to maintain their lives or end suffering. On the one hand, a person is morally obliged to use ordinary or proportionate means that offer a benefit of hope and do not entail a burden to preserve life (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2018). On the other hand, rejection from extraordinary or disproportionate means is possible if there is no hope of benefit except an excessive burden (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2018). Ordinary interventions are usually available to people, but it is a personal decision whether to use extraordinary technological interventions.
References
Cioffi, A. (2016). Distinguishing between assisting and substituting for vital organs. Ethics & Medics, 41(9), 1-2. Web.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2018). Ethical and religious directives or Catholic health care services (6th ed.). United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.