Legal approch to bioethics Justice in end-of-life cases Essay

Legal approch to bioethics Justice in end-of-life cases - Essay Example Retributive or punitive justice can be understood as a retroactive process that justifies punishment for past injustice or violation(s) of the law (Maiese, 2003). Substantive justice is concerned with enforcing the rights and obligations. Distributive justice is concerned with the fair allocation of rights, duties, benefits and burden among community members(Bernard M Dickens, 1994; Maiese, 2003). Accordingly, this paper demonstrates the application of the justice principle in end-of-life legislations and legal cases. Further, this paper focuses on four cases: brain death concept, the Rasouli case, the Latimer case, and the Carter case. Historically, death has been defined as the cessation of respiration and blood circulation(Dickens, 1985). Yet, the development of mechanical technology to maintain vital function, such as ventilators and machines to assist blood circulation, has posed a new ethical question about the patients with irreversible or otherwise profound neurological damage. The question develops to whether or not these individuals are in fact dead or not Further, one must question whether or not it is ethical to withdraw life support from these patients. As such , the brain death concept was introduced by a Harvard ad hoc committee in 1968("Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School," 1968). Brain death was recognised as criterion for death in Canadian provincial legislation (B. Dickens, 1985). For example, Ontario’s Trillium Gift of Life Network Act ("Trillium Gift of Life Network Act (R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER H.20)," 1990)in s.7 (1) states that death should be determined by at lea st two physicians; in accordance with accepted medical practice. Dickens analyzes existing legal approaches in death determination and indicates that the current process embraces what is known as the brain death concept(Dickens, 1985).This approach permits the