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The Total Artificial Heart and the Dilemma of Deactivation

Ben Bronner

    Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
    |May 24, 2017
    PubMed

    Insights

    Physicians can stop treatments if patients request it, but intentionally killing is forbidden. Deactivating an artificial heart challenges these medical ethics principles, forcing a re-evaluation of patient autonomy and physician non-maleficence.

    Area of Science:

    • Medical Ethics
    • Bioethics
    • Clinical Decision-Making

    Background:

    • Physician's duty to respect patient autonomy by discontinuing treatment.
    • Prohibition against intentional killing of a patient.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To analyze the ethical dilemma posed by deactivating a patient's artificial heart.
    • To examine the conflict between patient autonomy and the prohibition of killing in medical practice.

    Main Methods:

    • Philosophical argumentation.
    • Ethical analysis of a hypothetical medical scenario.

    Main Results:

    • Deactivating an artificial heart creates a conflict between two core medical ethics beliefs.
    • This dilemma forces a choice: either discontinuing treatment is not always permissible, or intentionally killing is sometimes permissible.

    Conclusions:

    • The artificial heart scenario highlights a fundamental tension in contemporary medical ethics.
    • Resolving this dilemma has profound implications for patient rights and physician responsibilities.

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