Terri Schiavo Case Summary

The Terri Schiavo case was a huge start of the “Right to Die” movement, the underlying cause of Schiavo’s collapse was never given a diagnosis. Consequentialist moral theories focus on how much good can result from an action. Non Consequentialist moral theories or Deontological theories, consider not the consequences of an action but whether they fulfill a duty. Some theories that can be used include utilitarianism, Kant’s ethics and natural law theory. Being aware of the case already, I believe there should be some sort of law that gives doctors to comply with the wishes of the patient if they are in a lot of distress.

Terri Schiavo collapses in her home in the early hours of the morning, when she arrived in the hospital doctors did not give

As we know consequentialism is the focus of an action that does more intrinsically good than bad, one kind of consequentialist theory is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is an action that produces consequences that are more good over bad for everyone involved. In order to produce an action that is the best one a utilitarianist would consider both long and short term effects. Two sub categories of utilitarianism include act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. act utilitarianism bases an action on the overall well being produced by an individual. In Terri Schiavo’s case an act utilitarianist would consider how much pain she was in, if any, and would consider euthanizing her if it meant she will not be in anymore pain. However, they would also look into how much the action would affect her family. Overall, they would consider euthanasia as it would result in the least amount of suffering for everyone concerned and allowing the current situation to continue would cause enormous pain and anguish. For 15 years Terri Schiavo was in a state where she could not live up to her full potential, she was not really living. A rule utilitarianist would not consider euthanizing Schiavo even in the greatest of circumstances because, it would cause more harm than good. As a doctor it is their job to help and protect their patients, by denying Terri Schiavo the necessities