Physician Assisted Suicide, an Ethical Dilemma
The practice of assisted suicide in the United Sates is extremely controversial. On one side of the spectrum, citizens believes that if one is suffering from a terminal illness, they should have the right to terminate their life with a physician’s assistance to prevent future and prolonged suffering. On the opposing side, it is morally unethical for a health care provider to provide assisted euthanasia on the grounds that the practice in contraindicated within their standard of care in that it is a physician’s obligation to preserve life. Which brings me to the heated debate, should the terminally ill have the right to end their life with the assistance of a physician?
Looking back, I remember …show more content…
These laws “allow physicians to write a prescription for a lethal dose of medication that the patient can use to end his or her own life (Giddens, 2012, p. 530).” On one hand, physician assisted suicide (PAS) offers the terminally ill a way out of suffering, pain, and grief. As I observed and witness with my uncle, he didn’t wish to be bedridden in the hospital or at home while health care workers cared for him and ‘wiped’ him every day. He was also very adamant that he did not want his children and grandchildren to see him deteriorating to that point as well. “I want them to remember me when I was alive and healthy, not in one hospital bed suffering (N. Apana, personal communication, January , 2015).” For the terminally ill, it’s appears to be all the same, they want to die with their dignity and without pain or suffering which is why they seek …show more content…
Part of me is for PAS because I believe that people who are terminally ill should have the right to choose whether or not they wish to suffer or not. However, my nursing side of me feels that PAS is contradicting with a nurse’s standard of care which is to preserve life and help heal the sick. Another point of why I am personally unsure of PAS is based on my religion, which is why most citizens are also opposing PAS. In regards to Catholics, their view of PAS is, “The official position of the Roman Catholic Church is strict: killing of a human being, even by an act of omission to eliminate suffering, violates divine law and offends the dignity of the human person (Death with Dignity, 2013, p. 1).”
Nevertheless, regardless of how I personally feel about PAS, in the future when I am a Registered Nurse, I must abide by the competencies and standards of care in my nursing practice. These measures include, provided palliative care to terminally ill patients, providing information of available resources such as hospice care and home health, and most importantly provide compassion, empathy, and therapeutic communication between the patient and their
The practice of assisted suicide in the United Sates is extremely controversial. On one side of the spectrum, citizens believes that if one is suffering from a terminal illness, they should have the right to terminate their life with a physician’s assistance to prevent future and prolonged suffering. On the opposing side, it is morally unethical for a health care provider to provide assisted euthanasia on the grounds that the practice in contraindicated within their standard of care in that it is a physician’s obligation to preserve life. Which brings me to the heated debate, should the terminally ill have the right to end their life with the assistance of a physician?
Looking back, I remember …show more content…
These laws “allow physicians to write a prescription for a lethal dose of medication that the patient can use to end his or her own life (Giddens, 2012, p. 530).” On one hand, physician assisted suicide (PAS) offers the terminally ill a way out of suffering, pain, and grief. As I observed and witness with my uncle, he didn’t wish to be bedridden in the hospital or at home while health care workers cared for him and ‘wiped’ him every day. He was also very adamant that he did not want his children and grandchildren to see him deteriorating to that point as well. “I want them to remember me when I was alive and healthy, not in one hospital bed suffering (N. Apana, personal communication, January , 2015).” For the terminally ill, it’s appears to be all the same, they want to die with their dignity and without pain or suffering which is why they seek …show more content…
Part of me is for PAS because I believe that people who are terminally ill should have the right to choose whether or not they wish to suffer or not. However, my nursing side of me feels that PAS is contradicting with a nurse’s standard of care which is to preserve life and help heal the sick. Another point of why I am personally unsure of PAS is based on my religion, which is why most citizens are also opposing PAS. In regards to Catholics, their view of PAS is, “The official position of the Roman Catholic Church is strict: killing of a human being, even by an act of omission to eliminate suffering, violates divine law and offends the dignity of the human person (Death with Dignity, 2013, p. 1).”
Nevertheless, regardless of how I personally feel about PAS, in the future when I am a Registered Nurse, I must abide by the competencies and standards of care in my nursing practice. These measures include, provided palliative care to terminally ill patients, providing information of available resources such as hospice care and home health, and most importantly provide compassion, empathy, and therapeutic communication between the patient and their