science

Ordinary and extraordinary care

Ordinary and extraordinary care is a science 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 Ordinary and extraordinary care rather than just read about it. In short: This is an article about ethical issues in health care. For other meanings, including those involved in tort law, see Standard of Care (disambiguation).

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

This is an article about ethical issues in health care. For other meanings, including those involved in tort law, see Standard of Care (disambiguation). Ordinary and extraordinary care are distinguished by some bioethical theories, including the teaching of the Catholic Church.

Catholic doctrine In explaining the Catholic Church's attitude towards preserving life, Pope Pius XII, in a 1957 Address to Anaesthetists, stated: “[...] normally one is held to use only ordinary means – according to circumstances of persons, places, times and culture – that is to say, means that do not involve any grave burden for oneself or another.” A 1957 article by the Jesuit theologian Father Gerald Kelly provides further detail. Kelly maintains that medical professionals are morally obligated to use ordinary means to preserve the lives of their patients, but extraordinary care is not morally obligatory. Ordinary means are "all medicines, treatments, and operations, which offer a reasonable hope of benefit for the patient and which can be obtained and used without excessive expense, pain or other inconvenience." In this view, everyone is obligated to use ordinary means to preserve his or her life; abstaining from or withholding ordinary means from oneself or another is tantamount to suicide or euthanasia. Extraordinary means are those "which cannot be obtained or used without excessive expense, pain, or other inconvenience, or which, if used, would not offer a reasonable hope of benefit." They involve a disproportionately great burden on the patient or community.

Secular opinions Ordinary means to preserve life have also been defined as "what is reasonable", taking into account "reasonable/proportionate hope of benefit/success; common diligence; and not unreasonably demanding." In this view, elements of extraordinary needs are "what is inappropriate", characterized by “certain impossibility; excessive effort; level of pain; extraordinarily expensive; and causing severe dread or revulsion." The American Life League maintains that ordinary care can become extraordinary care under certain situations.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ordinary and extraordinary care

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ordinary and extraordinary care claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 Ordinary and extraordinary care 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 Ordinary and extraordinary care 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 Ordinary and extraordinary care

In research: Ordinary and extraordinary care appears in science 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 Ordinary and extraordinary care 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: Ordinary and extraordinary care is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bioethics, Bioethics stubs, Christian ethics stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ordinary and extraordinary care 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 Ordinary and extraordinary care in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ordinary and extraordinary care 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 Ordinary and extraordinary care out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ordinary and extraordinary care in simple terms?

This is an article about ethical issues in health care. For other meanings, including those involved in tort law, see Standard of Care (disambiguation).

Why does Ordinary and extraordinary care matter?

Because it connects several science 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 Ordinary and extraordinary care?

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 Ordinary and extraordinary care.