Bioethical issues in the Terry Schiavo case
Introduction
The interaction of bioethics and politics has been evidenced in the Terri Schiavo case, the story of a lady who was in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. The battles between her parents and her husband regarding her hydration and artificial nutrition. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, was struggling to say that the feedings tubes should be removed so that his wife could complete her dying process. On the contrary, her parents were saying that the feeding tube should be maintained to prevent their daughter from losing her life. When the discussion of the family was taken to the system of the court, politicians started taking parts on the matter. They drove the private matter of family morality into the realms of ethics and politics( Rohlinger, Pederson, & Valle,2015). As the question concerning the fate of Schiavo was discussed, the underlying query of politics was to decide what was right in public. Does an individual have the liberty of making their decisions on deciding what is right, or do we have an objective morality that should be followed? The case of Schiavo was the latest battle in which this cultural debate happened.
Bioethical Analysis
As the case demonstrated, the relation of politics is connected to law, morals, and ethics. All three are dealing with what is right or bad. When people with different ethical perspectives are in one political jurisdiction, like in the US, some methods are established to determine the moral actions can and cannot be allowed in each day’s life. One team might believe that the feeding tube of Schiavo needs to be removed while another group would suggest that the feeding should not be removed. On an ethical level, a person can examine the differing perspectives and ask why the individuals hold the positions (Caudell, 2016). Though at some point, a decision must be made, and ethics always do not offer a solution. Communities have instead developed laws that tell individuals the right things in a certain jurisdiction.
Medical codes of ethics eco the legal consensus in the issues of end life in terms of autonomy and affirm the patient’s’ rights to informed consent and respect their wishes, even if it is beyond the competence loss that would be determined by what they could have wished (Sanburn, 2015). In this case, the rights of Terri Schiavo were jeopardized, and the patient’s in conditions like that one of hers to get or not get continued interventions and can threaten the basic principle of the United States law and American medical ethics.
Conclusion
The case of Terri Schiavo probably remains controversial since some people will feel that a wrong decision was made. The removal of nutrition and hydration, refusing treatment, the proxy making of decisions were neither novel nor new. This case can be an example of good processes and standards in ethics, law, and medicine. It explains using the medical consensus for the creation of standards in diagnosing persistent vegetative state. Its characteristics include review and care proceedings and a legal procedure and long tradition; it also embodies self-determination respect as a sign in principle in the US, which honors both broad moral pluralism and individual preferences.
References
Caudell, M. (2016). The Process Model and the Stagnation of New Public Policy: An Analysis of the Terri Schiavo Case.
Rohlinger, D. A., Pederson, J., & Valle, G. (2015). Inclusive discourse? Local media coverage of the Terri Schiavo case. Sociological Spectrum, 35(1), 1-25.
Sanburn, J. (2015). How Terri Schiavo Shaped the Right to Die Movement. Time Magazine, 31.