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Conner Thomson
Ms. Caruso
7-15-15
Is it Ethical to keep a patient on life Support?
Perhaps the toughest question families face is, When do we give up? They
ponder at the idea of when enough is enough and tread on the line of hope and doubt. Its
not easy to give up on a loved one on life support. It is a time packed with stress and
decisions. Unfortunately, this situation comes with a package of problems including:
expenses, insurance, religion, and doctor influence. However, in the midst of turmoil,
some families persevere. As a whole, having a loved one on life support can tug on a
familys ethical reasoning.
Life support has entirely altered the field of medicine by defying a persons time
to die. It goes against what God has in store for us. People are most often put on a
ventilator when he or she cannot breathe alone. It is most common to see vents in people
who have coma or are brain dead. The problem often lies in the confusion of brain death
and coma. Neurologist James Bernat says, Many people confuse brain death with coma
and proceeded to say, In brain death, there is zero brain function(Singh). A family
watches a brain dead loved one laying there breathing with a beating heart and cant help
but wonder if there is a chance to restore brain activity. It tugs on their ethical strings.
This is why it is so difficult to let go. The other factor that is capable of tugging on the
strings of stress is cost.
Even more confusing than brain death and coma are the exponential costs of life
support care. Dr. Ira Byock says that life supports amounts to around $10,000 a day to
keep a patient living. She believes it is absolutely ridiculous and either robs the family or
robs the insurance companies. After doing some more research, it can be concluded that

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hospitals purchase expensive equipment that keep people alive and in turn they make the
cost to use this equipment very high. If the person has insurance, then it is mostly paid for
because insurance such as Medicare cannot refuse this treatment to a patient. If the
individual does not have medical insurance, then it is billed directly to the family. High
costs are used to meet hospital payrolls as well as bonds. Dr. Elliot Fisher from
Dartmouth states that, Supply drives its own demand. If youre running a hospital, you
have to keep that hospital full of paying patients(Fisher). Hospitals thrive on sick and
terminally ill patients as bad as it sounds. Quite frankly, most ethics boards conclude it is
sickening (pun not intended) to see a hospitals motivation. The number one goal for each
health care system should be to provide great care at a reasonable cost. $10,000 per day is
nowhere in the range of reasonable (Meyer M.D.).
When considering the daily cost of life support, lets consider a man by the name
of Miguel Parrando. This man was involved in a car wreck that caused him to go into a
coma. However, this was no ordinary coma. Miguel was in it for 15 years before waking
up. If Miguel was on life support for around a total of 5,475 days and lets say the
average cost per day was $6,000 (because it was 15 years ago), then that is the
equivalency of $32,850,000. Think how hard this hit the insurance company and how
hard it was for the family to pay the rest. Miguel stated that his father had faith in the
Lord and that, If he was supposed to pass, then God would take him. After hearing this
story, it puts a twist on how medical professionals view cutting coma patients from life
support. In fact, it would be easy to say that that patients in a coma should remain on life
support. Miguel even made a point to say that, It was as if I slept and I woke up the next
day (Waking Up After 15 Years in a Coma 2014). So with that point, it is doing no harm

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to the patient. Rather it is giving way for life to return. However, a brain dead patient
should not be treated this way. A person in that condition has no possible way to come
back.
In regards to Miguels father having faith in the Lord, it allows for the topic of
religion to be brought into discussion and exactly how it is connected with life support
ethics. For a portion of my inquiry path, I briefly scraped the surface of religion in
medicine. More specifically, how different religions view death and the process of dying.
While some see it as being okay with passing with dignity, other religions such as
Christianity and Muslim feel that it is only all right to pass if God should have it this way.
So, if an individual can be put on a ventilator and the Lord does not take him, then he or
she should stay on it until it is time to pass away. These types of religions believe that it is
not appropriate to take life away if God should not have it that way. The critical question
here is why as Christians do we believe that a person in suffering shouldnt be taken off
of life support? This is because Christianity has faith in the Lord that He will make the
right decisions on when we should pass. Miguel is a perfect example as to why we should
have faith in the Lord. It is apparent that it was not his time to leave the Earth. God had a
plan for him and with faith, he returned to mental stability (Bartlett).
The last factor that has the ability to influence whether or not to keep a patient on
life support is the physician. However, there is only so much that a physician can do in
terms of decisions. In fact, they can really only give suggestions. The decision makers
normally lie within the family itself. Ultimately it is up to the patient if coherent. A
patient has the right to refuse treatment if he or she wishes to have a natural passing. The

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doctor is simply there to adjust to the wishes of the family and/or patient (Gedge,
Giacomini, Cook).
In conclusion, it is evident that end of life ethics will always propose a problem
and that most of the problems connect in some way. However, these can all be solved
through perseverance whether or not the patient makes it. The Lord often times works in
amazing ways and who knows, maybe tomorrow is the day when a loved one finally
wakes up.

Works Cited below

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Works Cited:
Bartlett, Linda, and Karen Rehder. "Lutherans For Life | Ventilators, Feeding Tubes, and
Other End-Of-Life Questions." Lutherans For Life | Ventilators, Feeding Tubes,
and Other End-Of-Life Questions. Lutherans For Life, 7 Oct. 2005. Web. 12 July
2015.
"Ethical Aspects of PAS." Ethical Aspects of Physician Assisted Suicide: All Sides.
Religious Tolerance, 3 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 July 2015.
Gedge, E., M. Giacomini, and D. Cook. "Withholding and Withdrawing Life Support in
Critical Care Settings: Ethical Issues concerning Consent." Journal of Medical
Ethics. BMJ Group, Apr. 2007. Web. 13 July 2015.
Harrop, Froma. "Life Support and Who Pays for It | Www.gaffneyledger.com | Gaffney
Ledger." Life Support and Who Pays for It | Www.gaffneyledger.com | Gaffney
Ledger. The Gaffney Ledger, 2006. Web. 13 July 2015.
Korchnak, Peter. "Death with Dignity Around the U.S." Death with Dignity Around the
U.S. Death With Dignity National Center, n.d. Web. 14 July 2015.
Maynard, Brittany. "My Right to Death with Dignity at 29." CNN. Cable News Network,
02 Nov. 2014. Web. 14 July 2015.
Singh, Maanvi. "Why Hospitals And Families Still Struggle To Define Death." NPR.
NPR, 10 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 July 2015.
"The Cost of Dying" CBSNews. CBS, 19 Nov. 2009. Web. 13 July 2015
"Types of Stroke." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease

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Control and Prevention, 06 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 July 2015.
"Understanding Brain Death." Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network. Donate Life, n.d.
Web. 11 July 2015.
"Waking up after 15 Years in a Coma, Spanish Man Has New Perspective on Euthanasia
Aleteia." Aleteia: The News of the World from a Catholic Perspective. N.p.,
30 June 2014. Web. 12 July 2015.