Futility on the Border

Hastings Center Report 43 (4):11-12 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Miguel is an eighteen‐year‐old male transferred to Alamo Hospital for antivenom treatment after a rattlesnake bite while sleeping on railroad tracks. His “coyote,” an individual who guides undocumented people across the U.S. border from Mexico, dropped him off at a clinic. By the time Miguel was transferred from the clinic to Alamo, he was in complete paralysis and at risk for heart failure, requiring ventilator support to breathe. A person who receives treatment for a snake bite within one to two hours has a 99 percent chance of recovery, but for Miguel, at least fifteen hours had already passed.A hospital ethicist at Alamo contacted the Mexican consulate, and together they arranged for Miguel's father to come to Alamo and make decisions for him. His physicians have determined that he is in a persistent vegetative state and can no longer benefit from hospital treatment. However, no long‐term care facility will accept him. Miguel is undocumented and unfunded.Miguel's father wishes to take his son home, but the cost of transporting him is high,and their home state in Mexico has no ventilator available for him and no consistent supply of electricity to run it. What should the hospital do?

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Futility on the Border.Craig M. Klugman & Jennifer S. Bard - 2013 - Hastings Center Report 43 (4):11-12.
The Context of the in the a Case Study of the Cross-Border University.Cezary Kościelniak - 2012 - Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 100 (1):197-215.
Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry.Bill Fulford, Tim Thornton & George Graham - 2006 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by Tim Thornton & George Graham.
Beyond Futility.Robert D. Truog - 1992 - Journal of Clinical Ethics 3 (2):143-145.
Crossing the Borders of Plyler v. Doe: Students without Documentation and their Right to Rights.Sara Radoff - 2011 - Educational Studies: A Jrnl of the American Educ. Studies Assoc 47 (5):436-450.
A broader look at medical futility.Wayne Shelton - 1998 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 19 (4):383-400.
Commentary: The ethics of resource allocation.K. M. Boyd - 1983 - Journal of Medical Ethics 9 (1):25-27.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-12-15

Downloads
6 (#1,269,502)

6 months
3 (#445,838)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references