ipl-logo

Assisted Suicide Vs Passive Euthanasia

1599 Words7 Pages

In Greek, Euthanasia directly translates as “good death”. Euthanasia is defined as performing interventions or administering medications with the intention of causing a patient’s death in order to relieve pain or suffering (Asch, 1996). There are many moral, ethical and legal issues regarding the topic of euthanasia. This paper will discuss in detail: the definition, history, current issues, effects of euthanasia on families, clinical practicing nurse perspectives and the American Nurse Association opinion on euthanasia. Euthanasia may be categorized in two different approaches: passive or active euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is when a patient is allowed to die on his or her own time, or as a natural disease progression. Passive euthanasia …show more content…

Asch (1997), found17 percent of critical care nurses reported they had received requests from patients or family members to perform euthanasia or assist in suicide, 16 percent reported they had engaged in such practices and 4 percent reported they had hastened a patient’s death by only pretending to provide life-sustaining treatment ordered by a physician. The most common method of euthanasia reported was the administration of a lethal dose of an opiate. The patients in the reports were described as close to death, or the families had already decided to “pull the plug”. The patients were withdrawing from mechanical ventilation and multiple nurses reported administering larger than ordered doses during this time to hasten death. Asch (1997), also reported a total of 342 nurses reported that they had wanted to engage in euthanasia but did not proceed. Many of the 342 nurses reported they feared getting caught, and concerns that the patient’s preferences were not fully understood. This article showed critical care nurses constantly face difficult moral, ethical, and professional dilemmas regarding patient care. It is of the utmost importance for nurse’s to understand their own values so they may provide the highest care possible and deliver …show more content…

The ANA will provide consultation to nurses working in states where assisted suicide is legal, to assist them in upholding their professional responsibilities. The ANA also recognizes the moral distress they may encounter when confronted with these situations. It is important for nurses to stay up to date with current legislation and ongoing debates associated with euthanasia. Education should impel nurse to be advocates for their patients and decide with the coherent and lucid patient what is best for their quality of

Show More
Related
741 Words | 3 Pages

Nurses are faced with ethical dilemmas related to clinical issues, and disease and treatment decisions daily (Kangasniemi,

Read More
293 Words | 2 Pages

The legalization of PAS under the DWDA influences the nursing profession because it gives patients an alternative option to the usual end of life care, also called hospice or palliative care. However, the American Nurses Association (ANA) position statement regarding PAS and euthanasia states that participation in these acts contradicts the Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements and is discordant with the principles of the nursing profession as a whole (ANA Center for Ethics and Human Rights, 2013). The most similar alternative is palliative sedation, a practice in which high dose narcotics are administered to keep the patient comfortable; however, this may accelerate the patient’s death as the narcotics suppress the central nervous system

Read More
1294 Words | 6 Pages

Physician assisted suicide is morally and ethically wrong due to the Hippocratic oath doctors take at the beginning of their term, and unlike euthanasia, it is therefore the patient that triggers the death and not a third party. Our culture subscribes to the notion of the “absolute sanctity of life”, Western religions do not plainly forbid suicide, and assisted suicide would result in overall no harm on the society. The physician-assisted suicide controversy surrounds the idea that assisted suicide rests on the difference between dying with dignity and dying suffering. The ethical issues of physician-assisted suicide are both emotional and controversial. It is ethically permissible for a dying person who has chosen to escape the unbearable

Read More
258 Words | 2 Pages

Nurses rights on assisted suicide The Code of Ethics for Nurses in Provision 1.4 specifically states: “Nurses should provide interventions to relieve pain and symptoms in the dying patient consistent with palliative care practice standards, and may not act with the sole intent to end life.” (Trossman, 2015, p7). Assisted suicide is considered to be a violation against the Code.

Read More
1449 Words | 6 Pages

When a patient is no longer competent or is physically ill or injured, non-voluntary passive euthanasia has been the term used for when the patients best interest is considered during the process of withholding and withdrawing life support (Varelius, p. 635). In this process death is seen to come about naturally. Arguments arise between suicidal deaths of non-competent psychiatric patient versus non-voluntary passive euthanasia and how they should not be considered different. Non-voluntary passive euthanasia is generally accepted due to deaths related to it are considered natural. The outlook on non-voluntary passive euthanasia is when the life-supporting treatment is withheld or withdrawn from, it is looked at as the death occurred because

Read More
1068 Words | 5 Pages

Everyday I work with patients in the hospital from all types of different backgrounds; as a health care provider, constantly seeing patients who feel like there’s no hope in their life, is devastating. Euthanasia should be legal in the United States to eliminate patients from undergoing suffering from an incurable or terminal disease. Healthcare is currently in transition of allowing more states to be able to have euthanasia performed on them because patients are no longer willing to suffer from these untreatable conditions. More people need to be informed on this procedure, the risks of it, and how to determine if someone is able to get this approved by a doctor or physician.

Read More
419 Words | 2 Pages

Conversely, supporters of euthanasia use another term, "passive euthanasia" to describe who knowingly withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging medical treatment which resulted in the death of the patient. Not surprisingly, the term "passive euthanasia" has

Read More
1635 Words | 7 Pages

This presents an interesting dilemma. While many “patients with advanced disease who are suffering from physical and emotional pain, functional declines, and multiple losses may express a desire for hastened death” (Hudson et al., 2006), it is fundamentally against the nature of nursing to assist in any way with physician assisted suicide or euthanasia. In fact in the Nightingale Pledge that every nurse takes, it says that the nurse will not “knowingly administer any harmful drug” (ANA). Also, according to the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses, nurses “may not act with the sole intent of ending a patient’s life even though such action may be motivated by compassion, respect for patient autonomy, and quality of life considerations” (ANA, 2013). So when does this become an issue of autonomy when a patient that can make their own decisions, expresses that they wish to have a physician assisted suicide or have euthanasia and is denied their wish?

Read More
919 Words | 4 Pages

Nurses can develop moral distress when they feel forced from supporting for the patients’ interests due to situational or administrative pressures. When there is a greater emphasis on the technical aspects of nursing care, this leads to less of a stress on the ethics of care. Gerow et al. (2009) however, identified that “the greatest source of moral distress was related to the ethical issues surrounding death, dying, and the aggressive delivery of care to patients who would not benefit from treatment” (pg. 1079). It is likely that moral distress will become more intense as technology expands and that continuing to ignore this problem can affect the quality of patient care and other roles of the nursing and health care

Read More
1664 Words | 7 Pages

There are many distinctions within euthanasia. The first is passive and active euthanasia. Active means that an outside party preforms the act of killing. For example, if my mom shot me because I was suffering from a severe disease, or if my doctor gave me an injection to kill me. On the other hand, passive euthanasia means when an outside party allows the person that is suffering to die by not treating him or her, or stopping the current treatment.

Read More
920 Words | 4 Pages

Euthanasia is the prescription of voluntary suicide to an individual. It is a topical issue within ethical discussion as conflicting viewpoints are prevalent. Often in hospitals, when a patient has become very ill to the extent that death is in sight, yet there is a long and painful journey towards this end, euthanasia

Read More
466 Words | 2 Pages

A nurse’s job is to make the patient feel comfortable and provide a friendly feel, which is difficult to do if hospitals and other medical facilities rely heavily on assisted suicide. According to the ANA, the procedure opposes “the ethical traditions of the profession”(Clair). The doctors are in a quite different situation. When you look in depth at the operation itself, many professionals imply that the doctor “are accessories of fact to homicide”(Clair). That means the doctor is assisting with the homicide because the patient’s death was only possible if the doctor contributed the needed drugs.

Read More
187 Words | 1 Pages

Active and Passive Euthanasia are two very different things. According to Rachels, he does not believe that. Active Euthanasia is purposefully taking an action or direct method to kill the patient. Passive Euthanasia is withholding any more treatment to the patient, therefore letting the patient die. Rachels then describes the conventional doctrine, where there is a question, killing the patient”, or “letting them die.

Read More
1075 Words | 5 Pages

Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering. Euthanasia is a term still new to many of us. It is a Greek term meaning ‘good death’. It means self-imposed death in a relatively painless and merciful way. Euthanasia is categorized in different ways, which include voluntary, non-voluntary, or involuntary and active or passive.

Read More
1016 Words | 5 Pages

In a few nations there is a divisive open discussion over the ethical, moral, and legitimate issues of euthanasia. The individuals who are against euthanasia may contend for the holiness of life, while defenders of euthanasia rights accentuate mitigating enduring, substantial respectability, determination toward oneself, and individual autonomy. Jurisdictions where euthanasia or supported suicide is legitimate incorporate the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Estonia, Albania, and the US states of Washington. CLASSIFICATION OF EUTHANASIA Euthanasia may be characterized consistent with if an individual

Read More

More about Assisted Suicide Vs Passive Euthanasia

Open Document