For this assignment you will start by reading the following scenario:
You are the PCP for Rodolfo, a 58-year-old man who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and has been in a persistent vegetative state for 18 months. He lives in a nursing home, requires tube feedings and round-the-clock nursing attention, and his care is paid for by Medicaid. He never discussed his health wishes with anyone. Rodolfo’s daughter is a nurse in the intensive care unit of your hospital. Rodolfo’s wife is deeply religious and has faith that Rodolfo will get better.
Approximately every 6 weeks, Rodolfo develops a urinary tract infection with septicemia and must be admitted to the hospital—often to the ICU—for treatment. Over the course of 2 years, Rodolfo’s care has cost $260,000. The hospital ethics committee discussed the case and recommended that tube feedings be withdrawn, or that the next episode of septicemia not be treated, thereby allowing Rodolfo to die. When you discussed the ethics committee recommendations with the family, the daughter agreed but the wife demanded that everything possible be done to continue Rodolfo’s life.
After reading the scenario please answer the following:
• As Rodolfo’s physician, what are you are options? What should be done, legally, if the patient does not have a living will or durable power of attorney?
• How would this case be viewed from the following ethical perspectives?
o Autonomy
o Beneficence
o Nonmaleficence
o Distributive Justice
• If Rodolfo’s care was to be withdrawn what are the ethical and legal implications?
• Conclude with a proposal of what should be done in Rodolfo’s case. There is no right or wrong answer to this question, but your answer should align with one of the four perspectives along with an explanation as to why.
