Shannon Carroll
Case Study 3
I think that the parents should continue to follow Janet’s wishes. Janet made it very
clear that she did not want to receive any life sustaining care in the case of fatal injury, such as
a ventilator. Because she had such a detailed living will already in place, I believe that it would
be unethical for the parents to go against her wishes. Also, the pregnancy is very new. She and
her late husband just found out about the baby that day. Because of this, there is a very good
chance that given her condition she will have a miscarriage. If the head trauma from the crash
was enough to severely injure her, who is to say that there is no damage at all done to the fetus
as well. Also, if they chose to try and give Janet lifesaving measures, what is the probability of
her body being well enough to carry to full term. If Janet was in the later stages of pregnancy, I
could understand her parents wanting to override her wishes just long enough to have the
baby. However, a first term pregnancy is not enough to go against her wishes. It would lead to
many months of feeding tubes and ventilation, all of which she strongly wanted to avoid. She
would be kept alive solely to be a human incubator, not as a person with dignity. At least on
hospice, she could have control over her last days and pass away on somewhat of her own
terms. She could not control the result of the accident, but she can control the type of care she
receives afterwards. In my option, regardless of the baby, Janet’s wishes should still be
followed.