Ethics of end of life care Essay

Ethics often play a big role in end of life care in terminally ill people, such as the case of Hassan Rasouli, a man who was left with brain damage following surgery. Doctors determined that the man had no quality of life and that they had intended to remove him from life support measures that were necessary to keep him alive. His family quickly objected stating that they wanted him to remain on life support as in there Muslim religion it was imperative to preserve life. Doctors insisted that he should be removed, as there were no signs of life without artificial means, that the facial movements his family thought to be Mr. Rasouli smiling at them were just involuntary movements. The doctors feel that keeping the man on life support is inhumane verses letting him pass peacefully. The doctors have taken the case to the courts. This is an issues that is very common in todays times, with multiple factors playing a part from old age to terminal diseases, many people enact advance directives requarding their end of life care removing the debate of what their wishes were. The courts sided with the family and allowed the man to remain on artificial life support. An evaluation by a neurologist with the University of Western Ontario’s Brain and Mind Institute, found that Mr. Rasouli did in fact have some neurological function and therefor he was declared minimally conscious and not in a persistive vegetative state, however there is not a large difference in the two.