Instructions : Individually, provide answers to the following questions. When you are finished, submit your answers to your mentor for review. There are no right or wrong answers, but your mentor will make sure you’ve thought the questions through to a reasonable degree. Then your mentor will use these questions to guide a group discussion.

Withdrawal of treatment

In this task, you helped a family understand medical issues related to caring for a critically ill patient on life support. This situation forces families like Nick’s to come to terms with questions of life and death and make a choice as to whether or not to remove life support.

1. If Nick were a member of your family, what choice would you have made regarding the decision to withdraw life support and why?


2. What factors weigh into your decision? (e.g., medical criteria, emotions, timing…)


3. If Nick were 70 years old (as opposed to 20), how might it affect your decision?


4. If there were a chance of a future medical breakthrough that could someday cure Nick’s condition, how might it affect your decision? [I feel like the last part of the question is too leading.]

Organ Donation

Nick’s family was approached about organ donation while he was still alive which was very upsetting to his father. Yet, critical decisions about organ donation need to be made prior to a patient’s death.

1. How do you feel about the appropriateness of raising these questions with a family whose loved one is in critical condition?


2. In a situation where the patient had previously signed his/her driver’s license indicating that s/he wanted to be an organ donor, should the family have a right to override that decision? Provide evidence to support your opinion.

Life vs. Death

1. When is someone “dead,” in your opinion?


2. When do you believe it is ethically reasonable to harvest patients’ organs (e.g., what if they’re not dead but are in what medical professionals have characterized as persistent vegetative state)?