DWDA Influences The Nursing Profession

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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