Free Essay About Ethical Diagnostic Test

The tragic events that befell Jahi McMath subsequent to her entering the operation theater have dragged back many ethical debates that had for some time been considered dealt with. These ethical debates touch upon the very notions of life, death and human rights as well as rights and obligations of medical practice.
The foremost concern is when a person is dead in all finality. Medical science and legal institutions take it as the point when the brain activity has been extinguished. Those dissenting from this specification will argue that a beating heart and blood flowing in the body are the very requirements of life in a person regardless of brain death. Although this claim on the surface exhibits itself as just an ‘either/or’ question, it has far reaching repercussions for medicine practitioners, medico-legal practice, patients and their families. The case of Jahi McMath catapulted this issue back in to popular debate world over.
Another important concern that have come to the forefront are the rights and obligations of a medical facility. Should a medical facility be absolutely governed by rules and regulations or should there be room for improvisation and relaxation regarding the protocol. In the case of Jahi McMath, Children’s Hospital Oakland was imperturbably bent on the medico-legal definition of death and was refusing to make any concessions based on a different viewpoint regarding death as that of Jahi’s mother. The hospital had declined to keep Jahi on life-support systems but refusing their facility to be used for performing procedures was justifiably been seen as sabotage by Jahi’s mother. The hospital’s requirement of Jahi’s mother to take their conceptualization of death as final is an ethical issue as this conceptualization is still debated in other parts of the world (e.g. Denmark) and relaxations are allowed in other places ( e.g. New Jersey).
Considering the gravity of the issue and the vested interests of the parties involved concessions ought to have been made on both sides. Jahi McMath’s family ought to have recognized the protocol of medical practice and institutions while on the other hand the Children’s Hospital ought to have allowed external practitioners into their facility so as not to sabotage any attempts on the family’s part to move Jahi.