PDF-(READ)-Making Medical Decisions for the Profoundly Mentally Disabled (Basic Bioethics)

In this book Norman Cantor analyzes the legal and moral status of people with profound mental disabilitiesthose with extreme cognitive impairments that prevent their exercise of medical selfdetermination He proposes a legal and moral framework for surrogate medical decision making on their behalf The issues Cantor explores will be of interest to professionals in law medicine psychology philosophy and ethics as well as to parents guardians and health care providers who face perplexing issues in the context of surrogate medical decision making The profoundly mentally disabled are thought by some moral philosophers to lack the minimum cognitive ability for personhood Countering this position Cantor advances both theoretical and practical arguments for according them full legal and moral status He also argues that the concept of intrinsic human dignity should have an integral role in shaping the bounds of surrogate decision making Thus he claims while profoundly mentally disabled persons are not entitled to make their own medical decisions respect for intrinsic human dignity dictates their right to have a conscientious surrogate make medical decisions on their behalf Cantor discusses the criteria that bind such surrogates He asserts contrary to popular wisdom that the best interests of the disabled person are not always the determinative standard the interests of family or others can sometimes be considered Surrogates may even consistent with the intrinsic human dignity standard sometimes authorize tissue donation or participation in nontherapeutic medical research by profoundly disabled persons Intrinsic human dignity limits the occasions for such decisions and dictates close attention to the preferences and feelings of the profoundly disabled persons themselves Cantor also analyzes the underlying philosophical rationale that makes these decisionmaking criteria consistent with law and morals Basic Bioethics series. “It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off . on . sometimes. . What . matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions. .”. Jim . Rohn. . “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”. of medical . decision-. making. . 1. :. . The . CREDO stack. John Fox . Department of Engineering Science . University of . Oxford . and OpenClinical. Thanks to …. Psychologists, Informatics/CS/AI. A WORKSHOP FOR LAWYERS ABOUT CAREER DECISION MAKING. Why Lawyers Get Stuck-Career Indecisiveness. Not all lawyers have made an unequivocal decision to be or remain lawyers-some level of doubt is common. How can we make our research count in academia and in practice. Wendy Rogers, CAVE, . Mq. . Uni. Catriona. Mackenzie, CAVE, . Mq. . Uni. Katrina Hutchison, CAVE, . Mq. . Uni. Ainsley Newson, VELIM, . Evolution Consulting & Research. May, 2016. 2. Why Look into the Role of Physicians’ Emotions in their Prescribing Decisions?. Do doctors even feel emotions?. Aren’t doctors just consumers in lab-coats?. 25 Years of Advocating for Adult Home Residents. . Judge . Postpones. Closing of Group Home. By . Somini. . Sengupta. , July 1, 2000 . Lawyers with MFY Legal Services, a nonprofit group that represents the residents, said they were relieved by the judge's order but also worried about whether their clients would receive the best kinds of placements in all the rush.. Just about everyone will face a difficult bioethics decision at some point. In this book a theologian, ethicist, and lawyer equips Christians to make such decisions based on biblical truth, wisdom, and virtue.Though a relatively new discipline, bioethics has generated extraordinary interest due to a number of socially pressing issues. Bioethics and the Christian Life places bioethics within the holistic context of the Christian life, both developing a general Christian approach to making bioethics decisions and addressing a number of specific, controversial areas of bioethics.Clear, concise, and well-organized, the book is divided into three sections. The first lays the theological foundation for bioethics decision making and discusses the importance of wisdom and virtue in working through these issues. The second section addresses beginning-of-life issues, such as abortion, stem-cell research, and infertility treatments. The third section covers end-of-life issues, such as living wills, accepting and refusing medical treatment, and treatment of patients in permanent vegetative states. Human dignity has been enshrined in international agreements and national constitutions as a fundamental human right. The World Medical Association calls on physicians to respect human dignity and to discharge their duties with dignity. And yet human dignity is a term--like love, hope, and justice--that is intuitively grasped but never clearly defined. Some ethicists and bioethicists dismiss it other thinkers point to its use in the service of particular ideologies. In this book, Michael Barilan offers an urgently needed, nonideological, and thorough conceptual clarification of human dignity and human rights, relating these ideas to current issues in ethics, law, and bioethics. Combining social history, history of ideas, moral theology, applied ethics, and political theory, Barilan tells the story of human dignity as a background moral ethos to human rights. After setting the problem in its scholarly context, he offers a hermeneutics of the formative texts on Imago Dei provides a philosophical explication of the value of human dignity and of vulnerability presents a comprehensive theory of human rights from a natural, humanist perspective explores issues of moral status and examines the value of responsibility as a link between virtue ethics and human dignity and rights. Barilan accompanies his theoretical claim with numerous practical illustrations, linking his theory to such issues in bioethics as end-of-life care, cloning, abortion, torture, treatment of the mentally incapacitated, the right to health care, the human organ market, disability and notions of difference, and privacy, highlighting many relevant legal aspects in constitutional and humanitarian law. Modern scientific and medical advances bring new complexity and urgency to ethical issues in health care and biomedical research. This book applies the American philosophical theory of pragmatism to such bioethics. Critics of pragmatism argue that it lacks a universal moral foundation. Yet it is this very lack of a metaphysical dividing line between facts and values that makes pragmatism such a rigorous and appropriate method for solving problems in bioethics. For pragmatism, ethics is a way of satisfying the complex demands of multiple individuals and groups in a contingent and changing world. Pragmatism also demands careful attention to the ways in which scientific advances change our values and ethics. The essays in this book present different approaches to pragmatism and different ways of applying pragmatism to scientific and medical matters. They use pragmatism to guide thinking about such timely topics as stem cell research, human cloning, genetic testing, human enhancement, and care for the poor and aging. This new edition contains three new chapters, on difficulties with applying pragmatism to law and bioethics, on helping people to die, and on embryonic stem cell research. In recent years, bioethicists have worked on government commissions, on ethics committees in hospitals and nursing homes, and as bedside consultants. Because ethical knowledge is based on experience within the field rather than on universal theoretical propositions, it is open to criticism for its lack of theoretical foundation. Once in the clinic, however, ethicists noted the extent to which medical practice itself combined the certitudes of science with craft forms of knowledge. In an effort to forge a middle path between pure science and applied medical and ethical knowledge, bioethicists turned to the work of classical philosophy, especially the theme of a practical wisdom that entails a variable knowledge of particulars. In this book contemporary bioethicists and scholars of ancient philosophy explore the import of classical ethics on such pressing bioethical concerns as managed care, euthanasia, suicide, and abortion. Although the contributors write within the limits of their own disciplines, through cross references and counterarguments they engage in fruitful dialogue. The questions of whether there is a shared nature common to all human beings and, if so, what essential qualities define this nature are among the most widely discussed topics in the history of philosophy and remain the subject of perennial interest and controversy. This book offers a metaphysical investigation of the composition of the human essence-that is, with what is a human being identical or what types of parts are necessary for a human being to exist: an immaterial mind, a physical body, a functioning brain, a soul? It also considers the criterion of identity for a human being across time and change-that is, what is required for a human being to continue existing as a person despite undergoing physical and psychological changes over time? Jason Eberl\'s investigation presents and defends a theoretical perspective from the thirteenth-century philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. Advancing beyond descriptive historical analysis, this book places Aquinas\'s account of human nature into direct comparison with several prominent contemporary theories: substance dualism, emergentism, animalism, constitutionalism, four-dimensionalism, and embodied mind theory. There are practical implications of exploring these theories as they inform various conclusions regarding when human beings first come into existence-at conception, during gestation, or after birth-and how we ought to define death for human beings. Finally, each of these viewpoints offers a distinctive rationale as to whether, and if so how, human beings may survive death. This book\'s central argument is that the Thomistic account of human nature includes several desirable features that other theories lack and offers a cohesive portrait of one\'s continued existence from conception through life to death and beyond. Modern scientific and medical advances bring new complexity and urgency to ethical issues in health care and biomedical research. This book applies the American philosophical theory of pragmatism to such bioethics. Critics of pragmatism argue that it lacks a universal moral foundation. Yet it is this very lack of a metaphysical dividing line between facts and values that makes pragmatism such a rigorous and appropriate method for solving problems in bioethics. For pragmatism, ethics is a way of satisfying the complex demands of multiple individuals and groups in a contingent and changing world. Pragmatism also demands careful attention to the ways in which scientific advances change our values and ethics. The essays in this book present different approaches to pragmatism and different ways of applying pragmatism to scientific and medical matters. They use pragmatism to guide thinking about such timely topics as stem cell research, human cloning, genetic testing, human enhancement, and care for the poor and aging. This new edition contains three new chapters, on difficulties with applying pragmatism to law and bioethics, on helping people to die, and on embryonic stem cell research. In recent years, bioethicists have worked on government commissions, on ethics committees in hospitals and nursing homes, and as bedside consultants. Because ethical knowledge is based on experience within the field rather than on universal theoretical propositions, it is open to criticism for its lack of theoretical foundation. Once in the clinic, however, ethicists noted the extent to which medical practice itself combined the certitudes of science with craft forms of knowledge. In an effort to forge a middle path between pure science and applied medical and ethical knowledge, bioethicists turned to the work of classical philosophy, especially the theme of a practical wisdom that entails a variable knowledge of particulars. In this book contemporary bioethicists and scholars of ancient philosophy explore the import of classical ethics on such pressing bioethical concerns as managed care, euthanasia, suicide, and abortion. Although the contributors write within the limits of their own disciplines, through cross references and counterarguments they engage in fruitful dialogue. Never before have the powerful techniques of decision analysis had more importance for patient and doctor. This book translates the major principles of medical decision making into clinically relevant and easy-to-understand terms. Filled with examples drawn from patient care and familiar games of chance, Making Medical Decisions teaches the reader how to feel confident about giving the best advice in the face of the inherent uncertainties of real-world medicine.