Question

Marlise Muñoz, a married mother of one, was found unconscious by her husband due to a blood clot in her lung. After being rushed to the hospital, she was declared brain-dead and discovered to have been 14 weeks pregnant. The family viewed her as having died, since she was brain-dead, and demanded that she be removed from life support. State law prohibited the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant woman, so the hospital refused the family’s request, insisting that Marlise remain on life support for 4 months until the fetus had some possibility of surviving outside the womb. Over the course of the ensuing months, the unborn fetus was determined to be nonviable due to hydrocephalus, a possible heart problem, and structural defects in the extremities. Nonetheless, the hospital persisted in its refusal until the family successfully obtained a court order requiring the hospital to remove Marlise from mechanical ventilation. Note: This is based upon a real case that received national attention.

Question 1: How would you defend the hospital’s decision to keep Marlise on a ventilator in this scenario on the basis of the wedge principle?

Question 2: How could the ethical principle of beneficence be used to critique the hospital’s decision to keep Marlise on a ventilator in this scenario?

Answer 1

Question no 1)

According to wedge principle which is referred to as a specific law that states and act can be wrong or disobeyed in specific instance if , when raised ta a general level of conduct ,it would injure humanity

In this case tha law is allowed the beloved ones to make decisions on removing the ventilation of a patient who is brain dead but under special circumstances as the wedge law state , the special circumstances in this case is that she is pregnant and in that case removal of ventilator is not allowed by law . So what the hospital did was right because saving a life is more humane than removing the ventilation and aborting a life

Question no 2)

According to ethical principles of beneficence in this situation the nurse and the hospital has taken the best decision. The mother of the child is brain dead and she is not having any pain or suffering . But as a mother she also wants her baby to be alive and be happy in this world. Even though this decision will not do any good to her physically but as a mother this decision will bring great joy to her soul