Ethical issues- Life support systems

Question 1

Problems with kidney dialysis

Answer 1

Kidney dialysis:
-only a temporary fix, not guaranteed to keep someone alive they need a transplant
-diminishes quality of life- time spent in hospital- 3 times a week for 4 hours at a time
-result of type 2 diabetes makes it self-inflicted sometimes so should we treat them over a small child with terminal cancer
-Dialysis is expensive- each haemodialysis session is £182, £30,800 per patient per year, in 2009 there were 7,000 patients on dialysis, but this is only a minority in a population of 65 million people
-is it keeping someone alive for the sake of it loving or against God’s will.
But where do we stop medical treatment
-is it a loving act to keep someone alive and reasonably healthy e.g. Sonia kidney failure at only 17 and on haemodialysis after failed transplants

Question 2

Problems with ventilators

Answer 2

Ventilators:

• who do you choose to give the ventilator to- young child or old adult, chance of survival/ recovery
• is it playing God and messing with the life/death system
• should you keep someone alive for the sake of it and without their consent and prolonging suffering e.g. Tony Bland in the Hillsborough disaster lived in a PVS for years, Marlise Munoz from Texas was pregnant and clinically dead but doctors insisted on keeping her alive for months
• when do you turn off the ventilator and let someone die, are they dying due to this or their illness/ injuries, if there is no chance of recovery is it fair to keep them alive for the sake of it. Should you not spend the money elsewhere e.g. cancer research
• example of where someone pulled through after years