Ethics Newsline®

Washington Post reports that case is an example of how technological development is outpacing ethics

WASHINGTON
The Washington Post reports that the use of implanted heart pumps is creating a new and utterly wrenching ethical dilemma: when to deactivate installed medical devices designed to prolong life.

The Post report stems from the case of a man with an implanted heart pump who wants to turn it off. The man, who was not identified in the piece, is in significant pain and no longer wishes to live in his current state.

Turning off the pump “would be tantamount to removing the patient’s heart,” says Columbia University bioethicist Jeremy Simon, who also serves on the ethics board at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. “Medicine has no role in such cases,” he asserts.

According to the Post’s Rob Stein: “Such cases, while unusual, are occurring more frequently as the rapidly rising number of elderly Americans is making heart failure more common and fueling demand for partial artificial hearts. Although most requests to discontinue the devices are honored, some patients have been found dead alone at home with their pumps powered off, raising fears that they may have taken matters into their own hands.”

“The debate illustrates how new medical technologies often proliferate before society has resolved the issues they raise, such as what to do when a patient has had enough,” Stein reports. “Similar clashes have arisen over pacemakers and implanted defibrillators, and experts say such predicaments will multiply as researchers rush to develop a host of other replacement organs.”

Source: Washington Post, Apr. 24.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Apr. 21 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 21 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 14 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 7 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 31.