Question

Edward Kirwin Edward Kirwin wrote out his living will in 1997. In it he specified that , should he ever become completely dependent on medical feeding to keep him alive, he would want to have the feeding withdrawn. In 2001, Kirwin was in a terrible automobile accident that left him virtually paralyzed. As a result, Kirwin was being maintained on artificial feeding. Though lucid for about three months in this condition, he eventually slipped into a coma. His wife then requested the removal of his feeding tubes according to his advance directive. Upon examining Kirwin’s advance directive, the attending physician noted that it had last been reviewed and dated in 1999, two years before the accident. He was therefore wary about whether the patient would still have wanted the removal of medical feeding. Furthermore, when Kirwin’s daughter and son, both in their thirties, arrived from Florida, they made it quite cleaer to the physician that their father was to be kept alive at all costs. When the physician referred to their father’s living will, the son and daughter claimed that the request was not really what he would have wanted.

1. How relevant is the reviewing and dating of the advance directive?

2. Should the son and daughter have a say in healthcare decisions involving their father?

3. Under what circumstances would you feel that the physician has no duty to honor Kirwin’s living will?

Answer 1

Answer 1: The reviewin and dating of the advance directives are legally recognized documents and doctors must respect person's known wishes, but doctors can always refuse to comply with wishes if they have an objection of conscience or consider wishes medically inappropriate.

Answer 2: Yes, the son and the daughter can involve in their father's decision because sometimes people take decision inappropriately but their family members knows and can do better for them.

Answer 3: The physician can not honor Kirwin"s living will because it is not appropriate. The doctors may reject to follow the living will if they find it not right for the patient. In Kirwin's will it is mentioned that he should not be on medical feeding, but if this medical feeding will be removed, then he will die. The doctors first priority is to save patient's life. So, physician will not honor his will.