Moral Issues Associated With Limiting Life Support

Moral Issues Associated With Limiting Life Support

Limiting life support allows patients to refuse treatment that expose them to additional pain and suffering. Healthcare professionals consider the patient’s condition such as COPD for Martinez’s case and severity of one’s health and well-being. In the scenario, the decision to turn up oxygen triggered a terrible distress and gasps. Physical, emotional, and psychological challenges triggered by turning up of oxygen raises questions about the care team’s commitment to upholding autonomy, dignity, and non-maleficence. Considering age and the nature and severity of a disease is crucial to enable the healthcare team to understand the reasons for an advance directive seeking to avoid CPR (Porteri, 2018). In Martinez’s scenario, the old age and a chronic COPD ascertains the need to limit life support. The main concern is ensuring that an intervention such as CPR cannot improve a patient’s condition. Thus, withholding life support is a moral and ethical choice based on the need to protect the patient from adverse outcomes.

Conclusion

Martinez’s case highlights the relevance of CPR and DNR orders in end-of-life care. The decision to issue an advance directive reminds healthcare professionals to respect a patient’s autonomy when limiting life support. Thus, healthcare professionals should acknowledge oral or written preferences that help advance the principles of beneficence, autonomy, and non-maleficence.