Do pregnant women have (living) will?
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Advance Directive Adherence↗
Biomedical subjects
Daniel Sperling
Publications and source records attributed to Daniel Sperling.
Breaking through the silence: illegality of performing resuscitation procedures on the "newly-dead".
Israeli author Daniel Sperling brings to a light a disturbing practice that is taking place in some teaching hospitals throughout the world--the practice of resuscitation procedures on newly dead patients without the consent of the next-of-kin. Mr. Sperling examines some of the policies and procedures in place to prevent such practice and also looks at the ethical principles that should guide such procedures. The paper also reviews the general issue of consent in the context of medical decision-making and discusses potential legal claims that might be available to persons who have not been consulted or informed before such procedures are performed. The evolving jurisprudence surrounding the treatment of the newly dead is analyzed and Mr. Sperling concludes by suggesting ways to improve upon the procedures currently in place at some teaching facilities.
Bioethics↗
From the dead to the unborn: is there an ethical duty to save life?
In this paper I examine the question whether physicians have a legal and ethical duty to sustain pregnancies of women who die during the first or second trimester by the delivery of their fetuses. One ground for such a duty, on which I am focusing, is the duty of "special relationship" between the mother and the fetus. In my paper, I claim that the special relations the pregnant woman and the fetus have do provide such a moral duty. This moral duty derives from the special and intimate relationship between the mother and the fetus, which has two considerations that support it: the uniqueness of the fetus, and the mother's understanding and acknowledgement of such uniqueness. However, I argue that when the mother is dead, the nature of the relationship changes, as she is no more aware of her fetus and her relationship with it. Thus, the ethical duty of the mother to save her fetus' life should be declined upon the end of the relationship between the mother and her fetus with the mother's death. I support my argument by analyzing the special relationship between the mother and the fetus from four related ethical theories: ethics of relationships, responsibilities to society, ethics of families, and the ethics of care. By discussing these ethical theories, I show how responsibility to society in general, and to social entities, like families, in particular, constitute a moral duty towards the fetus, which, as aforesaid, no longer exists upon the pregnant woman's death. In addition to being social entities I further show how the intrinsic values of families play an important role in forming such a moral duty. Nevertheless, I argue that such an instrumental duty that enables the establishment of families no more exists as the pregnant woman is no more socially and morally part of the family she belonged to while alive. I strengthen my argument by applying ethics of care, and by analyzing the practical conclusion I arrived at from a religious perspective.
Brain Death↗