Deck 2: Requests to Die: Non-Terminal Patients

Question 1

Which of the following statement is TRUE about the case of Elizabeth Bouvia?

A) Judge Hews (in the first legal hearing) kept Elizabeth Bouvia alive because he feared her death would have a depressing effect on other handicapped people.
B) Elizabeth Bouvia's father supported her desire for independence and education.
C) The state of California made it easy for Elizabeth Bouvia to attend college and live on her own.
D) Elizabeth Bouvia was never held down and force fed.
E) Elizabeth Bouvia eventually got her wish and died at a time of her own choosing.

Answer 1

Judge Hews (in the first legal hearing) kept Elizabeth Bouvia alive because he feared her death would have a depressing effect on other handicapped people.

Question 2

The strongest and best reason why disability advocates resisted Elizabeth Bouvia's decision to die was:

A) They believed that any decision to die was irrational.
B) They believed that Bouvia had untreated clinical depression.
C) They believed that it was suicide and that suicide was against God's will.
D) They believed that the morphine Bouvia was on for her pain from arthritis made her judgment clouded, therefore she was not competent to make decisions.
E) Lack of resources and lack of flexible support for disabled persons left her with only the false choice to autonomously die.

Answer 2

Lack of resources and lack of flexible support for disabled persons left her with only the false choice to autonomously die.

Question 3

It is TRUE that the SUPPORT study said that:

A) Disabled people in America cannot get the support they need to lead lives of independence and dignity.
B) Disabled people in America are only supported to die, not to fight against a prejudiced system.
C) Physicians who make mistakes should be supported by other physicians when they publicly admit to their mistakes.
D) Competent people do not accurately predict what they will find as an acceptable quality of life when they are later faced with decisions about continuing to live on respirators, or in a paralyzed state.
E) When they are depressed, patients do not understand that they may feel better if they take anti-depressant medications.

Answer 3

Competent people do not accurately predict what they will find as an acceptable quality of life when they are later faced with decisions about continuing to live on respirators, or in a paralyzed state.

Question 4

Paul Longmore dislikes movies such as "Million Dollar Baby" and "Who's Life is it, Anyway?" because:

A) They glorify autonomy.
B) They paint a false, either-or choice that disabled patients must either live a low quality life, or be heroically autonomous and kill themselves.
C) They often portray people alone, as if they have no families, or no one affected by a decision to die.
D) They never show how lack of resources and support lead disabled patients to make supposedly autonomous decisions to die.
E) All of the above.

Question 5

Which of these philosophers was opposed to the idea that terminal patients could take their own lives?

A) David Hume
B) Spinoza
C) Immanuel Kant
D) Tolstoy
E) John Stuart Mill

Question 6

The major objection by disability advocates to increased emphasis on autonomy for patients such as Larry McAfee and Elizabeth Bouvia is:

A) They dislike autonomy.
B) They think scarce resources drive patients to make autonomous decisions to die.
C) They think white patients are treated better than black patients.
D) They fear that families will exert pressure on disabled people not to be burdens.
E) They want less governmental control of the lives of disabled people.

Question 7

When Elizabeth Bouvia ultimately won her case, the appellate judges based her right to die on which of the following parts of the U.S. Constitution?

A) Freedom of religion.
B) Freedom from false imprisonment.
C) The implied right to privacy or personal liberty.
D) The 25^th Amendment that specifies a right to a dignified death.
E) The implied right to make medical decisions.

Question 8

Which of these names refers to an organization that promotes autonomy and palliative care for terminal patients?

A) Not Dead Yet
B) Compassionate Choices
C) Medicare
D) The Linacre Society
E) The Ross Perot Society

Question 9

In the case of Larry McAfee in the Birmingham area, which of the following was FALSE?

A) Larry was housed in Atlanta, then Ohio, then in Pelham, Alabama.
B) Russ Fine found Larry with meager resources to sustain good quality of life.
C) Larry was married and had a child.
D) After a kink in his urinary catheter caused a stroke, Larry died awhile later.
E) Larry won the right in court to be sedated before he pushed a switch to kill himself.

Question 10

Which of these is TRUE?

A) Larry McAfee went through a $1 million dollar insurance policy.
B) Larry is now alive.
C) Elizabeth agrees with physicians who forced her to stay alive.
D) David Hume, an 18^th century Scottish philosopher, argued that it was blasphemy not to fight against death.
E) Augustine argued that Christians suffering from a terminal illness could kill themselves.