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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page emphasis of the importance of the Patient Self Determination Act in health services. The author reviews the case of Terry Schiavo to stress the importance of having one’s wishes regarded their health care clearly recorded in a legally valid document. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPmedSlf.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
One of the most important legal considerations in health services has only recently came to the forefront of public attention. This aspect is the legal document
known as an advanced directive. Although advanced directives are not an entirely new phenomena, their importance has once again risen to the height of public attention with the Terri
Schiavo case, the case of the Florida woman whose life recently came to the forefront of national attention when her husband fought to have her feeding tube removed. Unfortunately,
Mrs. Schiavo did not have an advance directive in place prior to her decline into what essentially amounted to a non-functional state. Mrs.
Schiavo, like most Americans, more than likely never anticipated the day that she would be unable to communicate and make decisions for herself. Her plummet into her current state
initially occurred in 1990 (McLachlin, 2003). In reality, the fact that she did not have an advanced directive is not that surprising. In at least one study it
has been reported that those with a greater degree of independence from others healthwise, i.e. those who were functionally more independent were less likely to have advanced directives (Hanson and
Rodgman, 1996). This same study reported the use of advanced directives increased with the degree of dependency: "Cognitive impairment made it less likely that a decedent had a
living will (6.7%). Persons who died of cancer (16.4%) or pulmonary disease (11.4%) were more likely to have one" (Hanson and Rodgman, 1996).
In Mrs. Schiavos case, she had experienced a heart attack ten years previously and her brain had been destroyed in the process by blood deprivation (Sommer, 2000). After
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