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Life Support

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Ending Life Support There is a lot of controversy over the topic of ending life support. Should the decision be made by a doctor or the family members of the patient?

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-06-13/news/8502070415_1_karen-quinlan-life-and-death-brain-death http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/content/162/6/2029.full http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC522828/ http://www.people-press.org/2006/01/05/strong-public-support-for-right-to-die/ Cases: Karen Quinlan Case, Barber v. Supreme Court Case, Cruzan Case, Gilgunn Case
--Protected under the 14th amendment
Autonomy- determining moral responsibility for one's actions

Some people think that a patient’s death should be in the hands of the physician, if their condition isn’t consistent or advancing. A will is something that people use to make sure their desires are met if they are unable to make the decision by themselves. The idea of keeping a will was widespread in the 1990’s, the number of people that say they have a living will more than doubled from 12% in 1990 to 29% now (Peoplepress 1). But what about the other 71% of American’s? An accident can happen to anybody and if you aren’t able to make decision’s for yourself who is the person who will be making those decision’s for you. The regulations on the subject in the United States is that the patient or surrogate must be informed on the subject and can consent to or refuse all treatments given to them (Atsjournals 1). Life support would fall under this law in the case of someone not getting better, they could be taken off of life support with the allowance of a delegate of the patient. Some people think this shouldn’t be allowed and it should be in the hands of the patients doctor. Personally, I think that the decision should be made by the family member’s, although, I feel that the doctor should be the one to bring it up to the family member’s and tell them what they think the best option would be.

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