Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Have We Learned Anything for the Case of Terri Schiavo?

What has the case of Terri Schiavo taught us?

That's the question asked of Glenn McGee, the John B. Francis Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics in a podcast, moderated by Lorell LaBoube at Practical Bioethics.

It's a quick 20 minute listen which raises some of the following points:

PVS is not curable; what does it mean to wait for a miracle?

Why was Schiavo's eating disorder largely ignored in the discussion? and isn't it ironic that the fight was for forced feeding?

There are 30,000 PVS patients in the US. Why did this case come to the fore?

We've learned little from the Schiavo case because the primary issues regarding ethics of indefinite artificial sustainment were largely skipped over.

Who pays for indefinite care?

Was the Family Guy episode that used humor to address Schiavo's condition too soon?

Advanced directives largely don't work because they are largely still unused.

Is indefinite (futile) care in line with our pragmatic, Judeo-Christian heritage?

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