This thesis develops the proper role of quality of life assessments in situations of newborn euthanasia. Initially spurred by the Groningen Protocol of the Netherlands, which was a protocol outlining the criteria for non-voluntary newborn euthanasia of seriously ill or impaired newborns, this paper considers the practice of newborn euthanasia within the context of the current decision making frameworks already in place in this country. Specifically, this paper relies on informed consent and the best interest model as well as the generally accepted respect for parental authority in medical decision making. In light of these current standards of practice, this paper argues that in order for newborn euthanasia to be ethically permissible, it must be split into two primary decision making processes. The first is the decision to provide euthanasia as a medical option, which rests solely with physicians. The second is the decision to actually euthanize the child, which rests with the parents or guardian of the child. Both of these decisions are dependent upon assessments of the newborns current and future quality of life. The decision to provide newborn euthanasia must be based on a set of components of quality of life that are sufficiently universal so as to allow them to be applied to any newborn and to maintain a reasonable degree of uniformity of assessments between physicians in the same case and in like cases. This thesis identifies five components of a minimally decent quality of life that physicians should use to determine whether to offer newborn euthanasia as a medical option. Once this decision has been made, parents take on the responsibility of considering whether the childs current and future quality of life justify newborn euthanasia. This decision is understood in the context of the broad deference that the medical community gives to parents in their treatment decisions made for their children. The physicians decision to provide euthanasia as an option is meant to inform the parents decision but is in no way meant to obligate compliance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12022010-173314 |
| Date | 27 January 2011 |
| Creators | Bednar, Tomas |
| Contributors | Lisa S. Parker, Valerie Satkoske, Alan Meisel |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12022010-173314/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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