biology

McFall v. Shimp

McFall v. Shimp is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand McFall v. Shimp rather than just read about it. In short: McFall v. Shimp, 10 Pa.

Key takeaways

McFall v. Shimp belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect McFall v. Shimp to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of McFall v. Shimp from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

McFall v. Shimp, 10 Pa. D. & C. 3d 90 (July 26, 1978), was an Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, court case. The court ruled that it is unacceptable to force another person to donate body parts, even in a situation of medical necessity.

Summary

Thirty-nine-year-old unmarried asbestos worker Robert McFall had "a rare bone marrow disease" called aplastic anemia, where the patient's bone marrow fails to manufacture certain necessary blood components. Without an urgent bone marrow transfusion, McFall would soon die. McFall's first cousin, a 42-year-old crane worker named David Shimp, was the only available bone marrow match for McFall at the time, but Shimp refused to donate his bone marrow, which would have dramatically increased the odds of saving McFall's life (with Shimp's bone marrow donation, doctors estimated that McFall would have had a 50% to 60% chance of surviving). McFall then sued Shimp in order to force him to donate his bone marrow. When the case ended up in court, Judge John P. Flaherty Jr. stated that Shimp's position was "morally indefensible", but simultaneously refused to force Shimp to donate his bone marrow. Judge Flaherty also stated that forcing a person to submit to an intrusion of his body in order to donate bone marrow "would defeat the sanctity of the individual and would impose a rule which would know no limits, and one could not imagine where the line would be drawn." McFall attempted to cite a 700-year-old statute of Edward I, pointing out that the court was a successor to the Court of Chancery, although the statute was not found to have any authority after a diligent search.

Aftermath

Robert McFall died of a massive hemorrhage on August 10, 1978, about half a month after this court case was decided against him. Robert McFall's sister, Beverly Hope, stated that McFall forgave Shimp near the very end of his life and asked his family to forgive Shimp for refusing to donate his bone marrow as well. David Shimp generally refused to talk with reporters, but he did say that his decision not to donate bone marrow was "common sense" in an interview with the Pittsburgh Press. In addition to being cited in analyses of tissue donation from a legal point of view, its ruling on the compelled use of the body of a non-consenting person to benefit another person has also been cited in legal analysis of the abortion debate and of women's rights during pregnancy. Philosopher David Boonin has used the case in his defense of abortion rights, even if it is granted that the fetus is a person entitled to a right to life.

References

External links Order, McFall v. Shimp

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with McFall v. Shimp

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what McFall v. Shimp claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to McFall v. Shimp before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about McFall v. Shimp ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of McFall v. Shimp

In research: McFall v. Shimp appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses McFall v. Shimp in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: McFall v. Shimp is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1978 in Pennsylvania, 1978 in United States case law, Aplastic anemias, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for McFall v. Shimp outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study McFall v. Shimp in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what McFall v. Shimp means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain McFall v. Shimp out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is McFall v. Shimp in simple terms?

McFall v. Shimp, 10 Pa.

Why does McFall v. Shimp matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study McFall v. Shimp?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on McFall v. Shimp.