POLITICS & SOCIETY
Can Hospitals “Pull the Plug” Without Family Consent?
Are hospitals allowed to take a patient off of life support without consent? One family in Buffalo, NY has gone to court to stop a hospital from pulling the plug on their mother. The hospital has also barred the family from getting a out-of-network second opinion.
On March 26th, 2022 Beverly Whitehead suffered a medical emergency in Buffalo, New York. Over the course of the next few days Beverly’s children learned that their beloved mother was brain dead and — this is the crazy part — that the hospital was taking their mother off of life support against their wishes.
Can a hospital take your loved one off of life support against your consent after only a few days? It’s not as if Ms. Whitehead had been lingering for weeks, months, or years.
You can read the complete and beautifully written story by Matthew Spina here.
I applaud this courageous family for stepping up to fight for their mother so bravely in the midst of their shock and grief.
The widely used and understood Hippocratic Oath which is historically taken by new doctors states the following,
“…Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.”
This hospital plays at God and does so against the wishes of this woman’s family.
Patients and families should have rights protecting them from this type of outrageous behavior. No hospital administrator should have more power than a family to choose what is right for their loved one.
The Hippocratic Oath
I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.
I will not be ashamed to say, “I know not”, nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling, and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.
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