Deck 7: When Life Supports Are Futile or Refused

Question 1

Which of the following best characterizes a futile treatment?

A) Any treatment with burdens and benefits for the patient
B) Any treatment that has benefits for the patient
C) Any treatment that has exceedingly poor benefits, if any, for the patient
D) All of the above

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The chief factor that must be considered in determining the quantitative futility of a medical intervention for a patient is the likelihood that the treatment

A) Will produce health benefits for the patient
B) Will improve the patient's quality of life
C) Will agree with what the patient wants
D) All of the above

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following best characterizes Tony Bland's condition after he suffered a crush injury in a crowd surge? He lost

A) All function in the whole brain
B) Cardiopulmonary function
C) Higher-brain function
D) Brainstem function

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Nancy B involved a court decision permitting the withdrawal of life support from a patient affected by

A) Permanent vegetative state
B) Whole-brain death
C) Deep coma
D) None of the above

Question 5

A landmark effect of Cruzan was that it established that

A) Physician-assisted suicide is lawful
B) States have a right to set evidentiary standards for the withdrawal of life supports from incompetent patients
C) Active euthanasia is lawful
D) All of the above

Question 6

The notion of qualitative futility is sometimes invoked for the purpose of

A) Withholding life supports
B) Withdrawing life supports
C) Denying a patient's request for treatment
D) All of the above

Question 7

In Bland, the Law Lords regarded artificial nutrition and hydration as being similar to the provision of

A) Other life-sustaining treatments
B) Food and water
C) Basic care
D) All of the above

Question 8

Which of the following court cases involved the legal permissibility of removing a life-sustaining respirator?

A) Cruzan
B) Bland
C) Nancy B
D) Quinlan

Question 9

Life-sustaining treatment is considered qualitatively futile when it can afford the patient

A) No benefit
B) No hope of ever leaving the intensive care unit
C) Exceedingly poor benefits
D) All of the above

Question 10

Which Sanctity-of-Life doctrine, if any, is consistent with the moral permissibility of forgoing artificial nutrition and hydration for a patient in a permanent vegetative state?

A) The conservative Sanctity-of-Life doctrine
B) The liberal Sanctity-of-Life doctrine
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B

Question 11

Which of the following claims best captures a reason for the moral permissibility of forgoing a life-sustaining treatment that is regarded as an extraordinary measure in a situation?

A) Sometimes nature must be allowed to take its course
B) There is a moral difference between killing and letting die
C) Heroic or disproportionate means are morally optional
D) All of the above

Question 12

Which of the following best captures a point of contention in Bland?

A) Whether artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) for Bland was life-sustaining treatment
B) Whether Bland's parents and physician had agreed on the withdrawal of ANH
C) Whether Bland was in a permanent vegetative state
D) All of the above

Question 13

Which of the following best captures the view about the value of life held by a liberal Sanctity-of-Life theorist who accepts the biological-versus-biographical-life distinction?

A) All human life is sacred
B) Only biological life is sacred
C) Only biographical life is sacred
D) None of the above

Question 14

Which of the following best captures the liberal Sanctity-of-Life doctrine's position on forgoing life-sustaining treatment for a patient in a permanent vegetative state?

A) Forgoing such treatment would undermine life's sacredness
B) Forgoing such treatment would be morally permissible
C) Forgoing such treatment would never be morally permissible
D) None of the above

Question 15

Decisions about medical treatment based on qualitative futility are value-laden. What does this mean?

A) That health care providers take them into account in their own assessment of a patient's quality of life
B) That health care providers take them into account in the patient's own assessment of quality of life
C) That health care providers take them into account in their own expert knowledge of treatment outcomes
D) All of the above

Question 16

Discuss what the Hippocratic tradition might say about forgoing life supports from patients whose death could thereby be hastened.

Question 17

Define the main types of medical futility.

Question 18

In which scenarios, if any, may considerations of age bear on determining the futility of a medical intervention?

Question 19

State the main effects of Cruzan on US law and explain its commonalities and differences with Quinlan.

Question 20

Within some societies, disconnecting a permanently unconscious patient from life supports is morally wrong, but never connecting the patient in the first place is acceptable. What may be said for and against these different judgments?