What should the hospital do? Should doctors simply keep Tonya on life support, as the parents want? Or, since all medical evidence indicates that Tonya’s brain damage is permanent, should life support be removing

The expensive and futile treatment of end-of-life patients increases the unaffordable healthcare costs and promotes healthcare that is inequitable. Patient autonomy, as well as surrogate autonomy, needs to be respected, though still weighed against the utilization of treatment, which is expensive in futile cases with the increasing costs of healthcare. Therefore, in futile cases, patients and their kin can consider comfort care as a viable option. The advanced technology in this case study promises no recovery. In futile situations, healthcare rationing can be considered the greatest good for society, though this has to be weighed against the autonomy of the patient (Scott et al., 2019). Care rationing is present in the healthcare system and may be justified as equitable justice when carried out equitably and ethically (Close et al., 2019). Medical resource allocation is most times limited and, therefore, ought to be distributed in an equitable manner. There is a need for the evaluation and assessment of the medical advancement in treatment so as to avoid unnecessary use of the already limited resources. This can be attained through knowledge and good education on the implications of advanced treatment and improved decision-making in healthcare from the physician, the patient, and the patient’s skin.

This view on rationing of care is consistent with the mission statement and values of the hospital I identified, and also, an accrediting body would support my choice. Some form of rationing is desirable as it is inevitable considering the US states’ finances and the unfunded liabilities of Medicare. The government has spending caps and rules on pay-as-you-go that require taxes to be increased for any additional spending. When this is done, physicians will avoid attracting additional taxes on incremental spending on futile treatment and will thus advise their patients on making a less expensive decision, which is the termination of futile treatment (Leonhardt, 2009)

References

Close, E., White, B. P., Willmott, L., Gallois, C., Parker, M., Graves, N., & Winch, S. (2019). Doctors’ perceptions of how resource limitations relate to futility in end-of-life decision making: a qualitative analysis. Journal of Medical Ethics, 45(6), 373-379.