Loading...
Citations
Altmetric:
Genre
Thesis/Dissertation
Date
2025-05
Advisor
Committee member
Group
Department
Urban Bioethics
Permanent link to this record
Collections
Files
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
DOI
https://doi.org/10.34944/6gdt-nz47
Abstract
The U.S. healthcare system systematically excludes undocumented immigrants (UIs) from life-sustaining treatments for advanced heart failure (AHF), creating profound ethical violations and health disparities. This thesis demonstrates how excluding UIs from AHF therapies breaches justice, autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence by restricting access to mechanical circulatory support, inotropic therapy, and heart transplants. Analysis of Medicaid restrictions, legal barriers, and a representative patient case study reveals how current policies institutionalize preventable harm. Contrasting these failures with successful state-level expansions for end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the work proposes actionable solutions to redress inequities exacerbated by immigration policies. The findings underscore that structural reform is both ethically imperative and financially viable, with critical implications for public health, equity, and clinician moral distress. This thesis calls for immediate policy changes guided by the ESRD model and further research to address healthcare exclusion.
Description
Citation
Citation to related work
Has part
ADA compliance
For Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.edu