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The Pros And Cons Of Withdrawal Of Life Support

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The Pros And Cons Of Withdrawal Of Life Support
Clinical Case: Two first-time parents come into the hospital to check up on their bundle of joy to discover that their otherwise perfect baby has now developed an incurable anomaly. Shocked and upset they turn to the medical team and ask what the next step is. They are presented with two options, termination of the pregnancy or to continue carrying the baby and have extensive measures carried out once the baby is born. They choose to continue the pregnancy and wait for the time to come to deliver. They deliver a baby girl but she is unable to breathe on her own. The team works tirelessly to keep her alive. The doctor decides to put the newborn on life support and now a new question arises. Should life support be withdrawn or should the extensive measures still be carried out? There are two different contexts that should be considered when dealing with …show more content…
They should also cause no intentional harm to their patient. Withdrawal of life support is questioned ethically in some cases due to the withholding of meals. Choosing to withhold feedings is hard for any comatose patient but especially hard with pediatric patients. Some may view this as a form of torture because the patient will begin to starve and therefore suffer more. In many occurrences, doctors will carry out pain management therapies to ease the discomfort of the patient to ensure that there is no suffering. Personally, I do not believe in withholding feedings from a patient of any age after withdrawal from life-sustaining measures. I think it is cruel and a form of torture to let someone starve to death. I also think that would fall under the category of intentional harm, therefore violating the code of
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