Reference no: EM133907622

Question

Helga Wanglie, an active and well-educated 85-year-old woman, tripped on a rug and was hospitalized for a broken hip in 1989. During her hospitalization, she sustained several cardiac arrests, was placed on life-sustaining measures and was eventually diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. The health care staff caring for Mrs. Wanglie sought to withdraw her life-sustaining support measures. Her case became nationally known when her 87-year-old husband refused to consent to the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments and her attending physicians requested that a judge name an alternate guardian based on the belief that her continued life-sustaining treatments were futile. The judge declined to name an alternate guardian, resulting in her continued use of life-sustaining equipment and care. Despite these continued measures, Mrs. Wanglie died when further resuscitative efforts failed.

1. What are the compelling rights that this case addresses? Whose rights should take precedence?

2. Whose rights should take precedence?

3.  How might the institutions' organizational ethics policies have impacted the outcome of this case?

4. Leaving any legal issues aside, how would you have used ethical principles to decide the outcome of this case, if Helga Wanglie had continued to survive relying on life-sustaining measure?

4. Now, examine the same Helga Wanglie scenario from the perspective of health care policy.

5. How would you begin to evaluate the need for the policy and the possible support or lack of support for the policy from your peers, nursing management, and others who might be affected by the policy?

6. Do the 10 framework questions outlined by Malone in chapter 4 (Guido textbook, p. 50) assist in this process?

7. Create a process proposal for the organization with possible guidelines, procedures, and policies to address the issues you have identified.