Topic: Social Implications of Advanced Health Care Technology
Order Description:
1. Read Chapter 16 Chapter Summary (What You Should Know)
2. Go to https://www.unos.org and review the contents.
3. Respond to the questions in the Health on the Internet exercise on page 402 of your textbook.
Chapter 16: The Social Implications of Advanced Health Care Technology
Chapter Summary:
The focus of this chapter is the social implications of advanced health care technology. Sociologists have identified five consequences of advanced technology: people have more options, it can alter relationships, it impacts the health care system, it raises questions of values, and it brings to light questions on social policy that must be resolved.
Advances in medical technology have created the ability to save lives that in the past would have never had the chance, but at what cost? Case studies of Karen Ann Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan, and Terri Schiavo demonstrate the conundrum of deciding the question of not “could we,” but “should we.” Advances in technology also create conflict of values when one must decide quality verses quantity of life. Do people really have the right to die? Many have criticized physician-assisted suicide; however, Oregon and Washington have legalized physician-assisted suicide.
Organ transplantation has become very successful in the last couple of decades; however, with the increase of transplantation as an option to prolong life, ethical and social policy questions continue to be raised. The United States has a very weak organ donation policy. Many people die before ever receiving a transplant, therefore, there is discussion about creating a more aggressive donation policy.
Technology to help couples that are infertile to have a chance at parenthood has also improved. Some techniques include intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilization, ovum donation, and surrogate motherhood. Of these issues the most controversial is surrogate motherhood. Advocates for surrogacy claim that couples have the right to this technique, while opponents believe that it demeans women and is not in the best interest of the couple, the surrogate, or the child.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
II. Societal Control of Technology
III. Heath Care Technology
1. Cardiac technology
2. Critical care medicine
3. Medical imaging
4. Health care computers (information technology)
5. Genomic medicine
6. The Social Implications of Advanced Health Care Technology
B. Social Implications of Advanced Health Care Technology
C. Social Issues Raised by Advancing Health Care Technology
IV. The Right to Refuse or Demand Advanced Health Care Technology
A. Do Patients Have a Legal Right to Refuse Medical Treatment?
1. Karen Ann Quinlan
2. Nancy Cruzan
3. Terri Schiavo
B. Can Patients Demand a Particular Medical Treatment?
1. Helga Wanglie
2. Medical futility
C. Physician-Assisted Suicide
1. Dr. Timothy Quill
2. Dr. Jack Kevorkian
3. Arguments Favoring Physician-Assisted Suicide
4. Arguments Opposing Physician-Assisted Suicide
V. Organ Donation and Transplantation
A. Social Policy Issues Related to Organ Transplantation
B. Organ Donation Policy in the United States
C. Alternative Directions for Organ Donation Policy
1. Strong required request
2. Week presumed consent
3. Strong presumed consent
4. Weak market approach
5. Strong market approach
D. The Psychosocial Dimension of Organ Transplantation and Donation
E. The Donor-Recipient Relationship
VI. Assisted Procreation
A. Infertility
B. The Development of Assisted Procreative Techniques
1. Intrauterine Insemination
2. In Vitro Fertilization
3. Ovum Donation (Surrogate Embryo Transfer)
4. Surrogate Motherhood
5. Gestational Surrogacy
C. Analyzing Surrogate Motherhood
1. The Case for Surrogate Motherhood
2. The Case against Surrogate Motherhood
3. Surrogate Motherhood and Public Policy
VII. Summary
Chapter Objectives:
After reading this chapter students should be able to:
1. Discuss the various health care advances in technology.
2. Discuss the social implications of advanced health care technologies.
3. Discuss the issues surrounding the right to refuse or demand advanced health care technology.
4. Define death.
5. Discuss the issues surrounding Karen Ann Quinlan.
6. Discuss the issues surrounding Nancy Cruzan.
7. Discuss the issues surrounding Terri Schiavo.
8. Discuss the implications of advanced directives.
9. Discuss the “right” to demand a particular treatment using Helga Wanglie as an example.
10. Discuss the issues with medical futility.
11. Discuss the implications of physician-assisted suicide.
12. Discuss the arguments for physician-assisted suicide.
13. Discuss the arguments against physician-assisted suicide.
14. Discuss the social policies related to organ transplantation.
15. Explain the organ donation policy in the United States.
16. Evaluate alternative plans for changing the organ donation policy.
17. Discuss the psychosocial dimension of organ transplantation and donation,
18. Explain the donor-recipient relationship.
19. Explain the issues surrounding assisted procreation.
20. Discuss the development and types of procreative techniques.
Possible Test Questions:
1. Would you be willing to receive a transplant? Why or why not?
2. Would you be willing to donate your organs? If so which ones? Explain your answer.
3. Do you believe that people have the right to choose to die? Explain your answer.
4. Discuss your opinion of physician-assisted suicide.
5. Should people have the right to demand treatment if it is medically futile? Explain your answer.
6. Write a policy for organ transplantation.
7. Discuss your thoughts about surrogate motherhood.
8. Discuss the advancements in health care technology in the last century.
9. Discuss the social implications of advanced health care technology.
10. Discuss the implications of fetal tissue transplants.
11. Discuss the implications of medical futility.
12. Discuss the implications of physician-assisted suicide.
13. What are the arguments favoring physician-assisted suicide?
14. What are the arguments against physician-assisted suicide?
15. Name the five technological advances in the past century.
16. Define telemedicine.
17. How is death defined?
18. Define persistent vegetative state.
19. Define advanced directive.
20. What is presumed consent?
Links:
Advanced Directives:
https://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/pat-advocacy/endoflife/003.html
Helga Wanglie:
https://web.missouri.edu/~bondesonw/wanglie.html
Karen Ann Quinlan:
https://www.deathreference.com/Py-Se/Quinlan-Karen-Ann.html
Nancy Cruzan: https://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/righttodie.htm
Organ donation: https://www.donatelife.net/UnderstandingDonation/OrganDonation.php
https://www.organtransplants.org/
Physician-Assisted Suicide:
https://www.assistedsuicide.org/suicide_laws.html
Right to Demand Treatment:
https://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2010/07/the-costs-of-a-right-to-demand-treatment/
Right to Refuse Treatment: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1335174/
Surrogate Mother:
https://www.surrogatemother.com/
Telemedicine:
https://www.telemedicine.com/
Terri Schiavo:
https://www.nndb.com/people/435/000026357/
Key Words and Terms:
- Advanced directives
- Brain death
- Commodification of life
- Encouraged voluntarism
- Fetal tissue transplants
- Genomics
- Helga Wanglie
- Infertility
- Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
- In vitro fertilization (IVF)
- Jack Kevorkian
- Karen Ann Quinlan
- Living will
- Medical futility
- Nancy Cruzan
- Ovum donation
- Persistent vegetative state (PVS)
- Physician-assisted suicide
- Procreative liberty
- Pure voluntarism
- Strong market approach
- Strong presumed consent
- Strong required request
- Surrogate motherhood
- Technology
- Technological determinism
- Technological imperative
- Terri Schiavo
- Tyranny of the gift
- Weak market approach
- Weak presumed consent
- Weak required request
Suggested Readings:
Brezina, C. (2010). Organ donation: Risks, rewards, and research. New York: Rosen Publishing Group.
Goodman, K. (2009). The case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics, politics, and death in the 21st Century. England: Oxford Press.
Gosten, L (2010). Surrogate motherhood. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Weir, R. (2010). Physician assisted suicide. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Suggested Videos/Films:
John Q (2002). A man finds out that his insurance will not cover a heart transplant for his son.
Return to Me (2000). A man meets the woman who received his wife’s heart.