Ethics Case Analysis Paper Baby K Essays - Medical Ethics, Medicine

Ethics Case Analysis Paper: Baby K Ayana Smith Bethune Cookman University Ethics 6/30/2017 The story of Baby K can be described as miserable and tortuous or earnest and triumphant dependent on the audience's perspective. Baby K was born in Northern Virginia with a condition called anencephaly which means Baby K would not be able to see, hear, or feel anything regardless of how long they lived. They wouldn't even be able to have thoughts and achieve a basic level of "personhood." Baby K's mother was aware of this 16 weeks into her own pregnancy; however, because of her motivation garnered by her strong religious beliefs, she had Baby K presuming that "all life is precious." In short, Baby K lived on for 2.5 years attached to a respirator the entire time and every time she stopped breathing she would be rushed back to the hospital to be resuscitated. The courts sided with the mother, but many of the nurses in the NICU felt that she was objectified and it would have been more humane to allow her to die. The most significant moral/ethical issues with regards to the story of Baby K are the issue of personhood vs livelihood and futile care. In relation, another significant moral/ethical dilemma would be abortion. Reason being, the doctors insinuated that Baby K's condition was/is futile to treat and the consensus among medical, legal, and other experts is that acts of heroism should not be used to keep such babies alive. Ultimately, the following statements establish the facts at hand: Firstly, the baby was born with anencephaly and with this condition you are essentially born brain dead. Secondly, the doctors all agreed that the baby was futile to treat. Lastly, Baby K's medical bills ran up to $500,000. The only conceptual ambiguity would be her religious belief stating that "all life is precious" because the word of "God" him/herself is an inconsistency in my humble opinion. Unfortunately, this is simply a logical interpretation and this case cannot be resolved based on just logic since faith must be considered and has no direct correlation with logic. Plus, the only people who are truly affected by this case is the hospital, the doctors and nurses, and the mother as they were the ones who were in care of Baby K. The person who would be most significantly affected by the decision made would obviously be Baby K's mother because she is the bearer of the child and the one responsible for their l ivelihood. Additionally, the emotional trauma that the mother would suffer is more substantial in comparison to everyone else with regards to the death of Baby K. One of the reasons for this may be related to the mother's natural sense of attachment to her child. According to the theories of John Bowlby (1988), a child is securely-attached if she is confident of her caregiver's support. The attachment figure serves as a "secure base" from which the child can confidently explore the world. With that being said, I believe that the mother's sense of attachment is parallel to the needs of their child and because of that Baby K's mother probably felt a heightened sense of attachment to her child that the average person would not be able to comprehend. On another note, I also feel that technology played a very big role in context with Baby K's case. Reason being, is because the technology available is essentially what kept Baby K alive for so long before they died of a heart attack after 2.5 years. If it wasn't for modern technology then Baby K would have either died immediately or within a short span of weeks. In any case, there are many reasonable options for action that could have properly resolved. These options include (but are not limited to) abortion, pulling the plug, and allowing baby K to live on. In my opinion, the moral standard that goes validates my argument is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism can be appropriately applied to this case because the essential idea of Utilitarianism is that the consequence of an action must be determined based on what promotes happiness for the greatest amount of people. The only person that truly benefits in