Ethical Dilemmas: The Mcmath Case

In summary, the McMath case encompasses nearly every problem discussed earlier from the misunderstanding of brain death and why doctors stop life support to poor family decision-making and religious objections. This case is not the first, nor the most recent to present an ethical challenge for physicians, however, it did increase public awareness of the problems with death laws in the United States. Not only is it difficult to determine and balance the legal rights of the physician, family, patient, and hospital in a dispute, but those rights vary from state to state due to inconsistent state laws. Furthermore, many hospitals do not have policies in place to handle conflicts or lack funding and staffing for their ethics committees. In light …show more content…
As an example, the states of New York, New Jersey, and California mandate that hospitals accommodate to religious objections (Pope, Burkle); however, Lawrence Gostin from the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law states "[physicians] violate medical ethics by imposing treatment after the patient is dead". On the other hand, states which do not accommodate to religions may be in violation of the first amendment right to freedom of religion (Lewis, et al., Prolonging). Moreover, several states override the physician, surrogate, and patient rights if the deceased individual is pregnant. In the famous case of Marlise Muñoz, the hospital continued life support despite her advanced directive due to the Texas Health and Safety Code which mandates continued treatment in pregnancy for the welfare of the fetus …show more content…
As an example of their effectiveness, ethics committee consults at Massachusetts General Hospital resolved 115 out of 134 disputes filed over a 6-year period which concerned a family or surrogate's refusal to sign a DNR. In the remaining 19 cases, the data collected garnered a better understanding of the reasons for refusals in future cases (Robinson, et

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