In your viewpoint, was the fact that Michigan had no law against assisted suicide sufficient grounds for dismissing the first case against Kevorkian? Why or why not?

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In the late 1980s to early 1990s, Jack Kevorkian, a physician in Michigan, began helping terminally ill patients commit suicide. Janet Adkins, newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, was Kevorkian’s first public-assisted suicide in 1989. Kevorkian was charged with murder, but the Oakland County District Court dropped charges on December 13, 1990, after a two-day preliminary hearing. The court ruled that Kevorkian did not break any law by helping Adkins commit suicide because there was, at that time, no Michigan law outlawing suicide or the medical assistance of it.

Prominent issues in the case were:

  • Whether Adkins was in fact giving informed consent.
  • The fact that Kevorkian did not have an established professional relationship with Adkins.
  • The fact that Adkins was not terminally ill (facing death within six months).
  • The issue of whether or not a person actually possesses the right to die.
  • The limits of autonomy.

People v. Dr. Kevorkian, No. 90-20157 52nd Dist. Ct. Mich. (1991); 534 N.W.2d. 172 (1995). Jack Kevorkian, nicknamed “Dr. Death,” eventually claimed to have assisted with 130 suicides. In 1999, he was convicted of second-degree manslaughter, for which he served 8 years of a 10-to-25-year sentence. Kevorkian was released from prison in 2007, and allegedly remained unrepentant until his death on June 3, 2011.

Answer the following:

  1. In your viewpoint, was the fact that Michigan had no law against assisted suicide sufficient grounds for dismissing the first case against Kevorkian?  Why or why not?
  2. According the principles discussed in this chapter, was Kevorkian, a physician, behaving in an ethical manner for a health care practitioner?  Explain your answer to include rational.

Evaluate the degree and quality of care that physicians, nurses, and medical technologists provide in their primary roles, including, but not limited to, patient safety and satisfaction as required in 21st Century U.S. hospitals.

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“Professional Legal Issues with Medical and Nursing Professionals” Please respond to the following:
• * From the scenario, analyze the different and overlapping general roles of physicians and nurses as they apply to professional credentialing and subsequent patient safety and satisfaction. Determine the major ways in which these overlapping roles may help play a part in health professional credentialing processes and conduct, and identify and analyze the ethical role these influences play in health care.
• Analyze the major professional roles played by physicians and nurses as they apply to physicians’ conduct in the medical arena and to nurses in the role of adjuncts to physicians. Evaluate the degree and quality of care that physicians, nurses, and medical technologists provide in their primary roles, including, but not limited to, patient safety and satisfaction as required in 21st Century U.S. hospitals.

What are the goals of the Commission?

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Part I
• Write an essay discussing the following:
• The role of the Joint Commission in accrediting medical facilities
• Which facilities can be accredited?
• What are the goals of the Commission?
• How do existing Joint Commission guidelines impact facilities that are not accredited by the Commission?
• What does it mean to a facility to be accredited by the Joint Commission?
• Is it mandatory for organizations to be accredited by the Joint Commission? If not, what impact does not having such accreditation mean in terms of reimbursement?

Part II
• Create a memorandum where:
• You are the administrator of the health information department for a medium-sized facility. You have just been informed by the compliance officer that the Joint Commission will be visiting your facility and will be focusing on your department.
• Begin the memorandum by including information you believe will be important for your personnel to know to prepare for the visit.
• Then, anticipate possible questions that the Commission might have for you in terms of compliance.
• How will you and your department respond to these questions? How will you manage any negative findings during the visit?
• Finally, discuss how current noncompliance findings can be avoided in the future in this memorandum.

Discuss potential effects that sexual abuse can have on a young woman. How might Susan’s experiences with her stepfather have affected her behavior?

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This case study is divided into 6 parts. After each part there are a series of questions. Jot down your initial impressions after each part.
Then, answer the following questions and discuss the case with your classmates.
1. Tell the class a brief history of this case.
2. Discuss the presenting problem, i.e., in the beginning did you think Josie was physically or mentally ill? How or why did your thoughts change?
3. What kind of treatment strategy would you recommend? Mention theoretical perspectives, or interventions/techniques and prognosis.
Other considerations (answer at least two of the following)
4. Do you think that Josie’s behavior or appearance influenced the care she received? Why? How did this impact her case?
5. What questions still remain? What other information would help you decide what is wrong with Josie?
6. With respect to the general public, how has the treatment of the mentally ill changed over time?
7. Do you think that medical professionals are sufficiently trained to differentiate medical from psychological illness? Why or why not? Can you give us an example of another illness which presents as a psychological concern but is chemically based?

Artificial Sanity
Please go to the following case:
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/files/artificial_sanity.pdf
1. Discuss some accepted models of mental illness, i.e., psychological, biological, behavioral. How do these differ? What assumptions are being made?
2. How do these different models influence the treatment of people with mental disorders?
3. Tell the class the history of the present case. What does “right to treatment” entail for Singleton? Does Singleton have schizophrenia in your opinion?
4. What are the assumptions about mental illness held by Singleton’s lawyer and the prosecutor? Support your answer with direct quotes from each lawyer.
5. Each lawyer appears to believe in a different model of mental illness. What model is each lawyer using to support his/her argument about how Singleton should be treated?
6. What is artificial sanity? Argue your own side of the case.

Sins of the Mother
Read the attached article. Then answer at least 4 of the following questions.

http://crimefeed.com/2016/07/a-look-back-at-the-susan-smith-case-23-years-after-the-south-carolina-mom-killed-her-2-young-sons/
Questions:
1. Susan violated what most people consider our most sacred trust when she killed her children. How could she have done it? Develop a profile of a woman who might kill her own children. Online, find the FBI’s profile of women who kill their own children. Compare your profile with the FBI’s profile.
2. Discuss potential effects that sexual abuse can have on a young woman. How might Susan’s experiences with her stepfather have affected her behavior?
3. Discuss possible pressures on a young couple that marries in their teens, especially under the circumstances of David and Susan’s marriage.
4. Identify nonverbal cues that Susan gave. Discuss how it is possible to tell if someone if lying from nonverbal behavior. What information does the use of the polygraph supply?
5. Speculate on why Susan might have done what she did. Include speculations about her marriage as well as her own childhood and adolescence.
6. Susan wanted relief from loneliness and the problems in her life. She wanted to commit suicide but did not want her sons to suffer as she had after her father’s suicide. She believed that if she killed her sons first and then committed suicide, her sons would suffer less than if she left them on their own. She felt burdened and was overwhelmed by the responsibilities of being a single mother. What role might depression have played in her actions?
7. Classify Susan according to the DSM IV-TR categories. What would the upcoming DSM V say?
8. Why didn’t her attorneys use the mental illness defense?