Advance Directives: A Case Summary

In 1983, Nancy Cruzan was a twenty five year old women who tragically lost control of her car, resulting her to a permanent hospital visit. When the paramedics came to find Nancy, she was not breathing and needed to be resuscitated. Getting her into a stable condition, Nancy Cruzan was in a coma, and diagnosed as a “vegetable”. There are several different areas of a vegetative state, Cruzan was in a persistent state. This meaning she had some partial reaction, but not true consciousness. She was then placed with a feeding tube to help her properly intake hydration and nutrition. Later, in 1988, Cruzan’s parents decided that this wasn't there daughter anymore. Soon, the parents requested that their daughters feeding tube be removed. The hospital
“ An advanced directive is a document by which a person makes provision for health care decisions in the event that, in the future , he/she becomes unable to make those decisions(Advance Directives: Definitions). ” There are two main types of advance directives, the “Living Will” and “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care.” A Living Will is “a signed, witnessed document, that if the individual is in a terminal condition and/or is unable to make decisions about his or her medical treatment a present physician may be able to make the medical decision.”(Advance Directives: Definitions) Additionally, family members and others have no legal right to give their desired wishes for the signer. Following, the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is a similar document, which the document is a signed, notarized document which the “signer designates an agent to make health care decisions if the signer is temporarily or permanently unable to make such decisions.” (Advance Directives: Definitions) Dissimilar, this document does not require that the signer have to be in a terminal
Terri Schiavo had been supported by artificial hydration and nutrition through a feeding tube for fifteen years. Happening by, “Terri Schiavo having a cardiac arrest, triggered by extreme hypokalemia brought on by an eating disorder.”(A Tragedy Compounded) The hospital soon made out for Schiavo to be in a persistent vegetative state, meaning wakefulness at times, some reflex responses, and swallowing. The attending physicians, neurologists, and radiologists confirmed the diagnosis of her state of being. Although, Schiavo’s parents and husband had their differences on their daughter/wife’s fate. Michael Schiavo wanted Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube to be removed, yet the family thought her condition might improve-yet had no objective data to support their