When nurses are faced with ethical decision making it is important to understand the scope and extent of the principles they are facing to avoid any boundaries that could potentially be crossed. Nurses are responsible for obtaining patient advocacy but also for maintaining their patient’s autonomy. Ethical issues can arise when a patient’s values or beliefs are possibly in question or in debate. As healthcare suppliers we may not always agree with the decisions of the patient or the active representative of the patient, but we must still provide the appropriate education and provide the care that is appropriate with the wishes that coincide to their care and remain respectful to the patients autonomy (What Do I Do Now?, 2013). As nurses
…show more content…
The measures can be considered between civil and criminal law when compared between the two. Passive euthanasia is when a person refuses to prevent the death which can be commonly seen in the hospitals with DNR or AND statuses or in hospice care. These measures are often taken to not to prolong life but not to end it either (Illinois Death with Dignity, 2014). Passive Euthanasia can also indicate meaning turning off life support and the patient succumbing to death due to the physician turning off life sustaining support. Active Euthanasia can be seen by taking a direct action to bring about the death of another individual. Active Euthanasia can involve lethal injection. Depending on the scenarios surrounding the circumstances the law could result in criminal versus civil. Currently only several states approve physician assisted euthanasia and other states are in support of palliative care to manage pain management and hospice care. If patients request to be assisted to leave this world and a nurse tries to comply out of passion they could be held criminally liable for murder. On the other spectrum if a patient is on palliative care and the state does not approve assisted euthanasia the nurse must comply with the standards in which their palliative care implies to render active pain management but to not suppress the respiratory drive that it could result in a civil case with the family for beliefs of oxygen deprivation. Beliefs have been that when patients are given narcotics and the respirations become calm, smoother, and shallow that the patient is being deprived. Reality is that this is a natural response that the body has. The body when in acute or chronic pain is forced in to a specific drive to breathe along with other co-morbidities that could be accompanied by air hunger that increases the rate to breathe and when the
The measures can be considered between civil and criminal law when compared between the two. Passive euthanasia is when a person refuses to prevent the death which can be commonly seen in the hospitals with DNR or AND statuses or in hospice care. These measures are often taken to not to prolong life but not to end it either (Illinois Death with Dignity, 2014). Passive Euthanasia can also indicate meaning turning off life support and the patient succumbing to death due to the physician turning off life sustaining support. Active Euthanasia can be seen by taking a direct action to bring about the death of another individual. Active Euthanasia can involve lethal injection. Depending on the scenarios surrounding the circumstances the law could result in criminal versus civil. Currently only several states approve physician assisted euthanasia and other states are in support of palliative care to manage pain management and hospice care. If patients request to be assisted to leave this world and a nurse tries to comply out of passion they could be held criminally liable for murder. On the other spectrum if a patient is on palliative care and the state does not approve assisted euthanasia the nurse must comply with the standards in which their palliative care implies to render active pain management but to not suppress the respiratory drive that it could result in a civil case with the family for beliefs of oxygen deprivation. Beliefs have been that when patients are given narcotics and the respirations become calm, smoother, and shallow that the patient is being deprived. Reality is that this is a natural response that the body has. The body when in acute or chronic pain is forced in to a specific drive to breathe along with other co-morbidities that could be accompanied by air hunger that increases the rate to breathe and when the