Argumentative Essay: Life Support And Brain Dead Patients

As modern medicine has advanced and the use of life sustaining technology has become more mainstream, a greater number of families and doctors are being faced with an important decision; when to use artificial organs, and when to shut them off. It’s a decision that haunts people long after it is made (Park). The topic of whether or not life support should be used for long periods of time to sustain brain dead patients is heavily debated. Many believe that brain death, a condition in which one loses all brain function and brain stem reflexes, is the same as final death. Science also points in this direction, and many doctors agree that brain dead patients should be removed from life support because they are technically already dead (Rubin). Even so, it is difficult for families to make this choice because they don’t want to “kill” their loved ones if they

Seeing as patients who are in a vegetative state cannot recover or “wake up”, choosing to prolong one’s existence for thousands of dollars a day is just plain foolish (Palmer). Families should not have to worry about financial troubles during their loved one's last days. In many states, brain death is recognized as final death, and no financial support is given from the government. Since those suffering from this condition require so much attention and expensive technology to keep them “alive”, families are left with massive medical bills that they can’t pay. Considering the patient will have to be taken off life support eventually, it is unwise to spend six and seven figure sums on something that won’t produce positive results. For any family, seeing a loved one on life support and knowing they aren’t going to wake up is extremely difficult. However, the financial tensions that come with long term use of life sustaining technology are just not worth having a family member kept “alive” when recovery is