Philosophy Question
Your team case study analysis should contain the same components as the cases you have been exposed to throughout the semester:
1. The story (right under)
2. Situational Awareness (facts of the case, good/bad features of the story)
3. Prudential Reasoning (moral agents’ perspective)
Jane Smith is a 31-year-old, 26-week pregnant, mother to be complained of having a terrible headache. She was found in her home by her husband unresponsive but was still breathing. After being rushed to the hospital doctors discovered that she had suffered a brain hemorrhage, she shortly after being evaluated by doctors she was later declared brain dead. Leaving her husband Brian Smith in a very tough and unimaginable position. Doctors encouraged the husband that if Jane was to be kept on life support the baby could live and grow still while in the mother although she was brain dead. Jane’s brain is not alive but her body is and is still giving her baby the nutrients that it needs to grow in the womb if she is kept on a ventilator and given the extensive treatments and nutrients that she needs to do so. She is kept on life support for 6 weeks and the odds for the baby’s survival is getting better and better. According to doctors everyday that passes raises the baby’s survival rate. Doctors hope that Jane can carry the baby 4 more weeks when she will be 36 weeks pregnant so that the baby will be healthy enough to be delivered via C-section. Jane was able to withstand the additional 4 weeks under life support in order for doctors to deliver her healthy baby boy and hand him over to the father Brian who went through a very hard time. After the birth of the baby doctors advise the husband Brian that his wife Jane is brain dead and will never be able to withstand a life again and that he needs to make the decision to take her off of life support. Although it is very hard to let go of a loved one Jane is brain dead and therefore the rest of her body will soon die once removed from life support. He agrees and signs the additional paperwork filling for her to be taken off life support. Jane dies at 31-years-old after giving birth to her son.
Solution Preview
Critical medical decisions are very difficult to make, especially when the patient’s life depends on it. This is because they are always bounded by ethical questions. In the case of Jane Smith, a 31 year old woman who is found to suffer from a deadly brain hemorrhage while pregnant, it is similarly very challenging to make a medical decision, considering there are two lives at stake. Jane Smith is 26 weeks pregnant, but the doctors have already determined that her brain is dead.
(585 words)