 |
 |
|
Health Care Ethics USA
We are now several weeks into the new academic year at Saint Louis University. And we are blessed again with an excellent class of new students who represent a fascinating variety of graduate specialties: law, literature, philosophy, public health, and religion. Once again, this year our students are fully funded with graduate assistantships and working full-time in the PhD program. Last Spring the program graduated two students with the PhD degree, as mentioned previously. So far this Fall another student, Tom Knoblach, successfully presented his PhD dissertation during his oral defense and he will graduate at the end of the Fall semester. This issue of Health Care Ethics USA has been delayed slightly because one of the essays was awaiting the court outcome in the case of Terri Schiavo, a patient in a persistent vegetative state in Florida. The court recently decided to remove medically assisted feeding from the patient, as discussed in the first essay of this issue. As usual, this issue of Health Care Ethics USA has three essays, one by myself, one by Tom Knoblach who will graduate with the PhD degree soon, and one by Ann Suziedelis who is a senior doctoral student in our PhD program and currently an Ethics Fellow at Catholic Health East. The first essay is by myself, “Resolving the Case of Terri Schiavo: a Matter of Being in a Persistent Vegetative State or of the Patient’s Intent to Forgo Life-Sustaining Procedures?” The essay discusses the ethical and legal dilemmas encountered in the case and applies the Ethical and Religious Directives to offer clarification for Catholic health care providers who face these difficult issues all too frequently. The second essay is by Tom Knoblach, “Disease and Life-Sustaining Treatment.” In this essay, Tom develops an analysis in a previous essay on caring for Alzheimer patients by exploring the morally acceptable limits on life-sustaining interventions for patients with dementia. The third essay is by Ann Suziedelis, “Physicians and the Burden of Medical Error.” In this essay, Ann discusses the need to reduce the burden physicians carry on the front line of care with regard to disclosing medical error. I hope you enjoy the essays and I look forward to receiving suggestions for topics that we might address in future issues. Professor Gerard Magill, PhD Index | Next: Resolving the Case of Terri Schiavo: a Matter of Being in a Persistent Vegetative State or of the Patient's Intent to Forgo Life-Sustaining Procedures? |
From the Director... |
 |