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Biomedical subjects

D C Thomasma

Publications and source records attributed to D C Thomasma.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Geriatric ethics.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Ethics, Medical↗
PubMed1988

The quest for organ donors: a theological response.

A study of God's creation, redemption, and salvation of the human community may provide an answer to the shortage of organs for transplantation. An exploration of these areas from a theological viewpoint leads to a conclusion that: 1. We belong to one another. 2. We owe others our organs when they can benefit from them and we no longer can. When Jesus said, "This is my body" and "This is my blood which will be given up for you," he handed over his body to the community. These words should be understood in a continuum with his giving up his life, his sacrifice on the cross. Thus, when he said, "Do this in commemoration of me," he meant not only that we should remember the sacrifice in a liturgical fashion but also that we should pattern our lives after his. Could it be that the eucharistic injunction can also mean, in our day, that we are to give our bodies to the community in the same way that Christ gives his to us in the Eucharist? Should organ donation be seen not only in a secular fashion, as an optional good deed, but also as a profoundly religious, even sacramental, extension of the eucharistic sacrifice itself? Just as Christians are one in Christ's body, they belong to one another in a physical sense. If Christ is the one body and we belong to Christ, then we also belong to one another--and are obliged to donate our organs to one another.

Christianity↗
PubMed1987

Ethical and legal issues in the care of the elderly cancer patient.

Contemporary cancer care is complex. Although its purpose is to cure, treatment of elderly patients requires recognition that incompetence and death may occur in the near future. The best way to honor the wishes of elderly patients is to construct a treatment decision status contract with them in advance. Through dialogue about probable outcomes of interventions, both patients and physicians can explore fundamental values to be respected in the course of treatment. In this way, physicians can preserve their traditional role of championing the value of life while respecting the considered judgments of elderly patients about their care.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Philosophical reflections on a rational treatment plan.

Diagnosis is widely regarded to be governed by logical rules, but constructing a rational treatment plan has received less philosophical attention. I examine such treatment plans under three senses of the term "rational": consensual, scientific, and ethical. My thesis is that treatment plans, even those based on medical indications alone, are inherently consensual and are governed by a logic of proportionality.

Beneficence↗
PubMed1986

New guidelines on foregoing life-sustaining treatment in incompetent patients: an anti-cruelty policy.

When certain ailments are an overwhelming and irremediable encumbrance, treatment directed at other curable ailments, although life-saving, cannot effectively achieve the goals of medicine. We are morally constrained from perpetuating the effects of a hopeless injury without prospect of benefit to the patient. An anti-cruelty policy is proposed as a new guideline for foregoing life-sustaining treatment that transcends the doctrines of "substituted judgment" or "reasonable persons" for certain incompetent patients. We propose the use of "anti-cruelty care" as an active chart order or progress note, and suggest that institutional ethics committees or governing bodies recommend its implementation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Continuance of nutritional care in the terminally ill patient.

Food and water can be naturally delivered to dying patients, or they can be medically delivered. If medically delivered, they are called nutrition and fluids. As such they should be regarded just like all other medical interventions when calculating their burdens and benefits to dying patients. A set of guidelines is proposed on which a policy might be based.

Beneficence↗
PubMed1986

Quality-of-life judgments, treatment decisions, and medical ethics.

Treatment of the elderly should rest on criteria that are morally different from those applied to the rest of the population. These criteria depend on perceptions about life and the quality of life that the elderly are more likely to hold than younger citizens. Six treatment axioms are proposed for avoiding subjective and often capricious quality-of-life judgments about the care of the elderly. These axioms rest on an explication of the moral difference between the elderly and the rest of the population.

Aged↗