Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
- On September 3, 1983 Elizabeth Bouvia admitted herself into California’s Riverside General Hospital expressing she wanted medical professionals to keep her comfortable while she starved herself
- When hospital workers refused, she reached out to media outlets and attorneys to help her case
- She was denied by the courts to have assistance in starving herself and the hospital was given permission to force-feed her through a feeding tube.
Bryan A. Liang, MD, PhD, JD,
and Laura Lin, MBA
-She sought a court order that would prevent the medical staff from force-feeding her, and give medical treatment that does not go beyond maintenance care of relief of pain
-48 declarations were filed by hospital staff, all stating that they have strong moral, ethical and religious objections to carrying out Mrs. Bouvia’s wishes while she is a patient at the hospital
Who do you think is missing from this conversation?
Many in the field felt that there were only two options: Comply with her request of assisted suicide or forcibly “treat” her
Medicine is a practice that hinges on consent
Which of these moral values seem to be at odds with one another with regard to the case?
Annas, G. J. (1984). Law and the Life Sciences: When Suicide Prevention Becomes Brutality:
The Case of Elizabeth Bouvia. Hastings Center Report, 20-46. doi: 10.2307/3561879
Benatar, D. (2011). A legal right to die: responding to slippery slope and abuse arguments.
Current Oncology, 18(5), 206.
Cassell, E. J. (1984). Life as a work of art. Hastings Center Report, 35-37. doi:10.2307/3561096
Cummings, J. (1983, December 13). Judge prepares to rule on death plea. The New York
Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/.
Fischer, L. (1987). The suicide trap: Bouvia v. Supreme court and the right to refuse medical
treatment. Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 21, 219-253. doi: 10.1176/3987
Kane, F. I. (1985). Keeping Elizabeth Bouvia alive for the public good. Hastings Center
Report, 15(6), 5-8. doi: 10.2307/3563061
Liang, B. & Lin, L. (2005). Bouvia v. Superior Court: Quality of Life Matters. Virtual Mentor, 7,
2-6. doi:10.1145-356/78
O’Dell, R. M. (2011). The Bouvia case revisited: an introduction to the bioethical topics of
individual rights, acts of conscience, and the right to die. Online Journal of Health Ethics, 7, 1-10. doi: 10.18785/ojhe.0702.05
Simpson, O. (2011). Consent and assessment of capacity to decide or refuse treatment. British
Journal of Nursing, 20(8), 510-513.
Steinbrook, R. (1986). The case of Elizabeth Bouvia. Starvation, suicide, or problem patient?
Archives of Internal Medicine, 146(1), 161-164. doi:10.1001/archinte.1986.00360130199026
Van den Haag, E. (1984). A right to die? National Review, 36(8), 45-46. Retrieved from
http://content.ebscohost.com