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Ethical legal issues care of death and dying
Ethical problems of euthanasia
Ethical problems of euthanasia
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Brian Regan is a man from Long Island, New York. Growing up, he was often picked on for his dyslexia, which made people think he was unintelligent. After high school, he cheated on an exam to get into the U.S. Air Force, where he met his wife and was very happy. In 1995, he was moved to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) where he had access to top secret government information and he learned to code. After falling deep into debt, Regan stole over a thousand pages of classified information from the NRO and attempted to sell it to foreign countries.
This novel is written and told by Joseph Plumb Martin himself. In these first hand accounts, he tells of the obstacles him and the numerous other soldiers faced during the American Revolutionary War. Along with speaking of the hardships faced, Martin also provides background of not only his life, but what the country was like during this time. Martin speaks of in the year 1774, he didn’t want to have any ties to the war, he felt that he’d be safer at home. (Martin, 96) When it comes to the weather that was faced, the men experienced all seasons Cesarino 2 every year the war was taking place.
(1) In his paper, “Is There a Duty to Die?” John Hardwig argues that some patients have a duty to die. According to Hardwig, who has a duty to die? What is his argument for this claim?
Gill argues that keeping a person healthy cannot be a physician’s only moral duty because in cases of terminal ill patients, they can no longer be treated or healed (372). If a physician’s only duty were to heal patients then they would not tend to the terminally ill because there would be nothing else that they could do, which is something that most people would find to be morally wrong (Gill, 373). No one would be okay with a doctor not helping a person at all who has received a terminal sentence. So instead of promoting health in this case, the physicians must find a way to reduce the suffering of the patient. This means that the physician should be able to reduce the suffering in the way that the patient asks for.
Atul Gawande’s book, “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” explores different themes such as, aging, death, and the mishandling of both aging and death by the medical profession’s. This book also addresses what it means to live well near the end of life. It is not just to survive, not just to be safe, not just to stay alive as long as the medical technology allows, but, according to the author it is about what living truly means to an individual. The author describes that the idea of “Being Mortal” developed as he watched his elderly father go through a steep decline in his health and the eventual death. He soon realized that during his medical education and training he was never taught how to help his patients with managing
The last argument that this paper will look at is the argument of double effect. In the context of terminal illness physician assisted suicide could instead be seen as a vital form of care for someone who is suffering, instead of the failure of medicine. Physician assisted suicide seems to oppose the pro-life view, but on closer examination, its purpose is instead to relieve suffering in imminently terminal cases where it is thought that no other treatment could reasonably hope to do the same. Even though traditionally the role of the doctor is seen as extending life, that role may also encompass the assistance in PAS.
American political leader Anna Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” There are some people that live their lives happily everyday while there are some that are living in bitterness. Life is a cycle that everyone experiences from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and finally ends with death. Some may believe that maybe if a human being is no longer content with life anymore, then he or she might as well no longer be alive. The issue of euthanasia has been one of the most discussed ethical situations among healthcare workers and patients.
Callahan’s opinion on euthanasia is a strong one. He begins his essay with three major points before going on to his major arguments against the controversial procedure. Starting with the topic of “consenting adult killing,” goes on to the limits of self-determination, and the final subject of these three is that medicine should be prepared to help those who need it to achieve their own view on a good life. Moving on, Callahan’s first major argument is on self-determination. He states that euthanasia is not one of these matters.
Introducing sports to any youth, is the first step towards giving them the sense of community. "Victory is Your Duty" begins by bringing the young men under the same roof working, training, competing and sharing the price of victories and losses. When Christian loses the national championship, his teammates rally around him and support him, sharing the loss as a team. with compassion and encouragement the coach pushes him to work through the pain, train harder and learn from the loss. His father, who was a national champion and Olympic participant, encourages him to reach his goal of going to the Olympics not to give up, to be proud of who he is and to do his best.
Though, in this paper, I have addressed several points that Dennis Plaisted has presented on why we should not legalize physician assisted suicide due to the issues with autonomy that convince the public that the state does not care enough to preserve the lives of those with less than six months to live. I argued that the limits of who and when an ill patient may be allowed to receive PAS are present for the state to relieve the pain of the ill who wish to have control over their death, and that it is only an alternative option for those patients. I considered a counterargument to my criticism, which argues that the state and doctors shouldn’t allow for PAS, as it gives the impression that the state does not care about the lives of the terminally ill. Just as well, the reputation of doctors as healers would be compromised if they supported this form of treatment. However, I explained that the quality of life is more valuable than forcing someone who is ill to suffer until their natural death.
Assisted suicide is an ethical issue which is reliant on a person’s values, morals, religion, and experiences. Debated this topic can bring out strong emotions and opinions pulling away from the focus of this paper which was simply to describe view points from both sides of the spectrum. There are many nursing implications that are associated with assisted suicide. Among these is the importance for nurses to be aware of their own beliefs about end-of-life care. Self- awareness will prepare nurses for challenges they will face when dealing with death.
Life and Death in Assisted Living Facilities Assisted living facilities are one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. Unfortunately, assisted living facilities have a history of being problematic. Specific cases from the movie Life and Death in Assisted Living Facilities indicates that assisted living facilities are often under staffed, poorly trained, and often admit elderly patients who are not qualified candidates for their facilities (Byker and Thompson, 2013). When taking this in to account, it is important to consider why families may admit their loved ones in to assisted living facilities.
Another would be that it is foolish to want those close to you – family, friends, etc, - to live forever because that’s not up to you and as stated in the quote above, it’s foolish to want things that aren’t yours to be yours because that’s impossible. He gives example in his sixteenth rule that when a person is mourning, it’s not what had happened, but rather his/her judgment of what has happened, so the best approach is to not mourning it inwardly, or applying feeling/judgment to it. So nothing beyond our own opinions belong to us, and because we can control our opinions, we can apply his reasoning that’ll supposedly lead to achieving peace of mind in life. This is because in his thinking, reason is good, and irrationality is bad, and to be intolerable of the rational – things out of your control – is irrational. Another part of human finitude that he gives way to improve upon is lack of self-discipline.
The possible legalization of euthanasia can cause a great disturbance in how people view life and death and the simplicity of how they would treat it. "There are many fairly severely handicapped people for whom a simple, affectionate life is possible." (Foot, p. 94) As demonstrated, the decision of terminating a person 's life is a very fragile and difficult one, emotionally and mentally. Nevertheless, it’s a choice we can make if it is passive euthanasia being expressed.
The word “euthanize” means to bring about a person’s death to relieve them from serious distress. The topic of euthanasia in medicine has evolved since intensive care was first instituted. Before the 1950’s, a simple model was used to determine when someone was dead: the individual was dead when his or her heart stopped beating. In the modern light, the answer to this question isn’t as clear. With advancements in organ transplantation and other medical technologies, the stopping of a beating heart is no longer a definite death sentence.