Case Study: Biomedical Ethics in the Christian Narrative

Running head: CASE STUDY: BIOMEDICAL ETHICS IN THE CHRISTIAN
NARRATIVE
Case Study: Biomedical Ethics in the Christian Narrative
Name of the Student
Grand Canyon University: PHI 413V
Author Note

1
CASE STUDY: BIOMEDICAL ETHICS IN THE CHRISTIAN NARRATIVE
Introduction
Diseases frequently tend to cause various sufferings and illness that unleashes the
search towards the meaning and for the understanding of the devastating experiences
(Rafferty, Billig & Mosack, 2015). The Bible and the context of the Christianity depict some
of the holy phrases illustrating the importance of praying and faith towards Christianity and
the spirit of Jesus. The assignment highlights a scenario of Mike and his blind faith on Jesus,
which is holding him back to treat his son who is suffering from acute kidney failure.
Pressing Issues
The most pressing issues for this case study are Mike’s blind faith in god. Mike is
leaving the entire hope of his son James over to god without doing anything fruitful or
effective in terms of treatment. It is his blind faith to god, which has complicated the entire
prognosis of the pathophysiological condition for James. Even when the doctor highlighted
that Samuel is the best fit kidney donor for James and James has only one year in hand for
kidney transplant, Mike is thinking about his faith towards Lord and dreaming of something
Miracle to happen. Another pressing issue in the case study is in-appropriate initiatives form
the healthcare professionals to make Mike understand that god only help those who are
proactive in helping themselves. There is nothing miracle going to happen for James unless
and until proper treatment is given.
Physicians Perspective
Under the present scenario, the physician should no longer allow Mike to continue
make decision for James. This is because, irrational thought process of Mike and his blind
faith towards god has already has James overall condition critical. However, according to

2
CASE STUDY: BIOMEDICAL ETHICS IN THE CHRISTIAN NARRATIVE
Kelly, Magill and Ten Have (2013), the right of autonomy and the right of informed consent
is opted to the parents when the child is a minor. Here James is only 8 years old and thus he is
a minor. Thus, it will be the duty of the physicians to make James parents to understand the
importance of treatment for James survival. The James should also be educated from
physicians perspective of importance of organ donation.
Christian Narrative
Treatment Refusal
Under the Christian narrative, human dignity is preserved under every stage of life.
As per the belief of Catholics, voluntary of direct killing of innocent life is gravely wrong.
When a life-saving or life-sustaining treatment is withdrawn with an intension that a miracle
will happen, it is considered to be unethical. It is also considered as euthanasia or suicide.
Christianity is against euthanasia (Brown & Slutzky, 2017). Thus as per the Christian
narrative, Mike’s approach of treatment refusal is not supported as it is hampering James life.
By refusing treatment for James, Mike is actually endangering life of his son and thus against
Christianity.
Patient Autonomy
Patient Autonomy from Christian narrative is somewhat oxymoron. This is because,
the life of Christian is bounded by the God’s sovereign direction. The people who are
Christian is constrained by the moral parameters of God’s word and the overall activity of
Holy Spirit under the proper guidance and god’s direction. Under Christianity, freedom can
never be used as a pretest for doing evil. It is considered as life of slaves. It is hardly an
imagery thing that would help to promote unconstrained autonomy. Thus the condition of
Mike cannot be explained under the Christianity principle of autonomy (Wilson et al., 2014).