ISD II – Neurology

Ethics/Humanities/Health Law

Background Reading for Sept. 23, 9-10:30 p.m.

This package contains:

• A 1998 article from Geriatrics by Dr. R.E. Cranford which discusses the ethical implications of vegetative and minimally conscious states.
• A 2001 article from the Los Angeles Times describing a legal and ethical controversy that developed around a patient who was supposedly in a minimally conscious state.
• A 2002 editorial from Neurology by Dr. James L. Bernat about the questions surrounding the minimally conscious state.

Learning Objectives

In this session you will:

• Consider the idea of therapy as a holistic enterprise
• Explore the idea of ‘personhood’
• Identify and explore some of the ethical and legal issues surrounding the diagnosing and treatment of a patient in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) or minimally conscious state (MCS)
• Consider how new medical categories such as MCS arise
• Consider the idea of “medical futility”

Article Summaries

• You are getting this package only a couple of days before the session. As such, for this unit only, article summaries will be accepted after the day of the session. You may hand in a summary any time before or on Sept. 30, 2002.

• Note: Those of you who did not select the journal option during the first part of the ISD course will be required to submit article summaries on two of the three remaining units covered in the ISD II course before Christmas (i.e., neurology, psychiatry, gastroenterology). More details concerning the grading scheme for the ISD II course will be provided in class.