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Ms. Robaczynski Assisted Suicide Case Study

785 Words4 Pages

Indeed, I believe Ms. Robaczynski killed Mr. Gessner. Throughout the years, healthcare providers face ethical questions regarding end-of-life decisions, especially nurses. It is evident, when Ms. Robaczynski stated “I was trying to act in the best interest of the patient. I felt helpless. I don’t know exactly why I did it”, that she had personal conflicts about this issue, and her nurse’s values were unclear and undefined. During the trial there was also a testimony on the views of Ms. Robaczynski supporting mercy killing, which is sometimes known as euthanasia. According to the American Nurse Association (ANA) (2013) in its position statement about “Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and Aid in Dying”, euthanasia is when “someone other than the …show more content…

Robaczynski testified, and one of the most important duties of the nurse is to act as patient advocate, their autonomy, rights, dignity, safety, and well-being, but there are no reasons that justify Ms. Robaczynski’s acts to disconnect the respirator and let the patient die. The main obligation of a nurse is to the patient’s health, including end-of-life care, such as comfort measures, pain management, and social, psychological, and emotional support until the last day of their lives, never terminate the life of the patient deliberately. That is for sure, active killing, and the merely intent to overruled these values in which the nursing profession is based, is unethical and …show more content…

Religious beliefs, cultural values, and moral objections influence people’s behavior, and nurses are not left aside in these matters. For example, during the trial Ms. Robaczynski said, “I only do it to GORK” (abbreviation of “God only really knows”), this demonstrates, once again, that she thought her action to stop the patient's treatment was correct, because God decided that the patient was in that situation and led her to act that way. However, for many would be the opposite, no one can take the place of God, nor have the right to decide for anyone's life, only God decides our way, and actively kill a person, it is

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This woman clearly demonstrated full autonomy and foresight during her decision to inquire about physician-assisted suicide. Based on the facts there is no indication she was not competent and of sound mind as she met all state requirements to request assisted suicide. Her statement of spiritual ties also leads us to conclude she has already evaluated the possible “consequence” of her death that may or may not apply to her religious views. Consulting her doctor about dying on her own terms demonstrates voluntary active euthanasia, which involves a social decision between two moral agents. In this situation, one being the doctor, and the other the patient.

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An Integrative Review. JAN Journal of Advanced Nursing, 1744. Karlsson, M. B.-F. (2015). A Qualitative Metasynthesis From Nurses’ Perspective When Dealing With Ethical Dilemmas and Ethical Problems in End-of-Life Care. International Journal for Human Caring, 40-48.

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Ever wonder what nurses have to go through with slowly dying patients? In Barbara Huttmann’s essay, ‘’A Crime of Compassion’’ she justifies her actions on both a social and personal approach. She tries to establish her thoughts on why someone has the right to die. She starts off the essay serious. From the beginning, she made the reader understand what she had to go through.

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Knowing this information can be challenging for some to set aside but following the code of ethics this is what has to be done. Position statements on Ethics and Human Rights that I could have utilized on in this case would have been Registered Nurses’ role and responsibilities in providing expert care and counseling at the end of life and Nursing care and do not resuscitate and allow natural death decisions (American Nurses

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Will, the physician in charge went against the patient’s wishes and gave a person who signed a DNR, CPR. This was against hospital rules because the patient signed a legal contract that said, “If I ever go into cardiac arrest, do not resuscitate me.” The doctor said that “she will thank [him]” at the end, but as discussed in class, DNR should all be followed because we have to give enough respect to the patient to grant them their dying wishes. The patient or the patient’s family could sue the doctor, anyone who helped resuscitate, or even the entire hospital because they broke a legal contact. The nurses who helped resuscitate the patient knew that the patient had a DNR, and that it was wrong to resuscitate her, but they did it anyway because a figure of authority asked them to do so.

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Today’s medical staff faces ethical dilemmas that are more perplexing, challenging, and controversial than ever before. As medical technology develops and we create more ways and machines that serve to prolong life, we face the legal and ethical debates over quality of life, patient autonomy, professional integrity, beneficence, social consequences, nonmaleficence, and the definition of death itself. Raising more ethical, moral, and practical issues than any other issue is physician assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide is the provision of the means of ending his or her own line with the assistance of a medical professional. Arguments in defense of and in opposition to assisted death have traditionally been centered on the same bioethical

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It is nearly impossible for the patient to rely on another person to make the best decision that they would have made for themselves, particularly when it involves personal interests such as profiting from a will. If there is something to gain, the family members’ motives seem questionable. If the patient falls ill, then there lies a possibility that their heirs will hope for the patient’s death so that they could receive their inheritance. The inability to confirm whether the family actually has the patient’s best interest in mind supports the argument that any form of euthanasia is unethical. Moreover, health care costs for terminally ill patients, including nursing homes, prescription drugs, and home health care deserves consideration.

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A survey was conducted and findings suggest that among younger pharmacists and only about one third would be willing to personally dispense lethal medication doses (Fass and Fass, 2011). When addressing physician-assisted dying, nurses must determine whether they believe assisting a suffering human being to commit suicide is compassionate and merciful or an “overt act of killing.” (Harris, 2014). A study that was done revealed that some nurses may view physician-assisted dying as compassionate release from senseless suffering but

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The oath requires that doctors do no harm to their patients. However, when debating the issue of physician-assisted suicide, one must consider what doing harm actually means. It is here that a profound ethical quandary is present, because many people believe that causing a patient’s death is doing

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Geertruida Postma, a Dutch physician in the Netherlands, was the first to openly practice a physician-assisted death in 1971. The patient was her mother. She was found guilty of murder, but her penalty only consisted of a one-week suspended jail sentence and a one-year probation. This minimal sentence made other physicians more comfortable to come forward about doing the same (“Euthanasia”). Fast forward 29 years, and in 1990 Jack Kevorkian, also known as “Dr. Death” assisted a woman named Janet Adkins, suffering from Alzheimer’s, end her life.

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However, we do recognize patient’s rights to refuse medications and other life-saving or prolonging treatments. So it is very important that we, as nurse, understand our legal rights on ethical issues such as the difference between assisted suicide and palliative care. Palliative care focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms and stress of their illness

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Most people would agree that taking a human’s life is almost certainly wrong. Despite this, the seemingly obvious moral rule becomes blurry with the mention of ending a terminally ill patient’s life as they wish. Physician-assisted suicide involves a doctor administering drugs to end a patient’s life at their request. Many argue that this is unethical and should remain illegal. By applying their beliefs and opinions on the value of life to explain the necessity for it to be illegal.

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Assisted suicide is a rather controversial issue in contemporary society. When a terminally ill patient formally requests to be euthanized by a board certified physician, an ethical dilemma arises. Can someone ethically end the life of another human being, even if the patient will die in less than six months? Unlike traditional suicide, euthanasia included multiple individuals including the patient, doctor, and witnesses, where each party involved has a set of legal responsibilities. In order to understand this quandary and eventually reach a conclusion, each party involved must have their responsibilities analyzed and the underlying guidelines of moral ethics must be investigated.

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Thus, while Karen Ann’s parents may have made a decision based on what they consider to be her right to dignity, as stated by Kant, they are doing a wrong to her and themselves as well as breaking a critical universal moral rule. Their decision to not let Karen Ann stay on the respirator is passive as opposed to active, and is an imperfect duty to themselves. A virtuous approach to the right to die debate emphasizes less on actions and more on the character of the person who performs the action. According to virtue ethics the opportunity to choose how and when to die is not by itself sufficient to ensure a good death.

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