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Palliative Care: Objections To Policy And Response

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Objections to Policy and Response (specific arguments with heading or all one together with response)
Professional integrity
Many of the arguments against PAS have to do with person integrity of the physician. It is argued that the role of the physician is to promote wellness and healing not death. The job of the physician should not be to play ‘God’ and decide when it is the person’s time to die and actually assist with the death. In response to this argument, the medical field is quickly evolving and it is important to reconsider the ideas behind medicine. Yes, in a way a doctor’s role is to promote health but it is also to keep the patients best interest in mind at all times and avoid harm. If the patient has no desire to be alive and would …show more content…

There has been a recent emphasis on palliative care in this nation. It is important that all options be weighed when deciding how and where to care for someone at the end of life. Palliative care incorporates keeping someone as comfortable as possible during the final stages of life. This can consist of removing life-sustaining equipment, sedating with medications, and providing non-Pharmalogical methods to promote comfort. There have been great strides in recent years towards better and more manageable palliative care (Quill, 2008). Palliative care has been given the status of being a board certified specialty. There are growing needs with the baby boomers coming through hospitals left and right. In response to this, it is agreed upon that all other options should be evaluated before considering PAS but when it comes down to taking someone off of a ventilator or sedating them to not feel pain, the patients ultimate wishes should come first. Suffering during the final transition towards death is not desired and many people wish not to have their families and loved one see them in a very vulnerable state when near …show more content…

Not only education on what exactly physician assisted suicide is but also how the physicians carry it out, what kind of medication is used, and the specific requirements the patients need to meet. There should be community seminars or conferences discussing different points of view and opinions. Not only should there be education in the community for PAS but also physician education. There are some doctors in the states where it is already legalized that are still opposed to it and won’t actively participate in it. There needs to be the option for the physicians to learn more about PAS and be able to ask questions and share stories with other physicians. Knowledge is power and in regards to PAS that power could be utilized towards ending the suffering of terminally ill patients if that’s what is desired. Physicians need to optimize skills of assessing pain and functional capacity. The physicians need to learn how to better treat pain and be able to identify psychiatric symptoms of terminal illnesses (Snyder & Sulmasy, 213). It is important for physicians to have the patient consider all other alternatives before choosing PAS and go over the risks and benefits of choosing PAS. One other implementation that should be a requirement in order for PAS to be legalized throughout the rest of American is that a

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The medical field is filled with opportunities and procedures that are used to help improve a patient’s standard of living and allow them to be as comfortable as possible. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is a method, if permitted by the government, that can be employed by physicians across the world as a way to ease a patient’s pain and suffering when all else fails. PAS is, “The voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician.”-Medicinenet.com. This procedure would be the patient’s decision and would allow the patient to end their lives in a more peaceful and comfortable way, rather than suffering until the illness takes over completely. Physician assisted suicide should be permitted by the government because it allows patients to end their suffering and to pass with dignity, save their families and the hospital money, and it allows doctors to preserve vital organs to save

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Terminally ill patients with cancer acknowledged dying at their preferred place of death as highly important.” This is a perfect example of how it is known that people who are terminal would rather be made comfortable and be able to die in peace. If the states were to make this legal the patients who are in so much pain that they would rather die would be able to do that. These patients do not want to be a burden to those around them. If it was legal physicians could come to the place where the patient is most comfortable and they could have their loved ones around them and they would be able to go in a peaceful way.

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Death is a topic that individuals in our society seek to avoid. As a result of this social taboo, people fail to discuss what they want their death to look like which places their families in a difficult situation. The family will decide what the patient would want and decided where to draw the line between what is considered sustaining life and postponing inevitable death. The failure to engage in these conversations results in “[patients]—along with their families and doctors—[being] unprepared for the final stage” (Gawande, 154). One way to confront this issue is to have individuals establish living wills and engage in conversations with trained personnel to discuss the complexity of life support.

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Patients who receive palliative care are constantly shown support and compassion from their healthcare providers and nurses, they instill a great deal of hope in their patients by never giving up on the individual's needs throughout their illness (Fernandez, 2015). Palliative care also provides moral clarity by instilling the belief that life has value. Death is an inevitable part of life, however it is the palliative cares team job to provide the most comforting departure for patients. Palliative care looks to provide patients with the most value and respect at the closure of their lives by giving patients value that is uniquely their own (Fernandez, 2015). Ethically speaking, palliative care does its best job to do right by its

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A very controversial topic lately is that of euthanasia. Physician assisted suicide is a very debatable ethical issue because people have different morals. I argue that in some cases it is ethical and others it is not. I believe that if someone is going to die, that there is absolutely no cure available that if they want to die via physician assisted suicide that is their choice. One of the main reasons that people chose to die via PAS is because they are in pain and don’t want their families to see them miserable.

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The goal of palliative care is to improve quality life, and to make the patients last days more comfortable for the patient’s and their families. The doctors decide who should be on hospice, but it is up to the patient’s and their families to make the decision. When the doctors suggest hospice or palliative care they have done everything they could for the patient’s. If the patients decide to go on hospice or palliative care, they have a choice of going home, or to a nursing home to live out the rest of their days.

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Death and Dying: The benefits and detriments of hospice Hospice is considered to be the model for quality, compassionate care for people facing a life-limiting illness or injury, hospice care involves a team-oriented approach to expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support ("Hospice Care", 2016). As with any circumstance that deals with the quality of life of a person, there are going to be many pros and cons to this way of life. Hospice can be a very hard time for not only the person going through it but also their friends and family, but if it is handled properly it can also be a very peaceful and loving time for a person who is near the end of their days. I will delineate many of these advantages and disadvantages

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Our team works tirelessly to come up with a plan of care that will make a patient’s passing pain free. Hospice is not created to cure a disease, but to manage the symptoms of an illness and make life more pleasant for those approaching the end of their life and those who love them. As such, hospice is comfort-focused. It is created to address not only physical pain, but also focuses on the mental, emotional, spiritual needs of the patient and their loved ones. In essence, a hospice team is a group of professionals that walk alongside someone as they face death, or a patient’s loved ones as the patient approaches the end of their

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However, as more people are living longer with chronic illnesses, the need for effective palliative care has become increasingly clear. Palliative care is an approach that focuses on improving the quality of life for patients with serious illnesses, by addressing their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), palliative care should be considered an essential component of healthcare for all patients with serious illnesses, not just those who are nearing the end of life (WHO,

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Hospice and palliative care can be easily intertwined; they are both concerned with promoting comfort and relieving patient pain. Hospice and palliative care, however, are different in some aspects. Patients who receive hospice care are nearing the end of their lives and there is no effort to cure their disease; the goal is to provide pain relief, a sense of belonging from family and friends if desired, support through the dying stages, and to assure that the person is able to die with dignity. Palliative care is also focused on reducing discomfort; however, the patient receiving care can be at any stage in their disease. Additionally, palliative care can also be administered during a time when a patient is receiving treatment to cure their illness.

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During the palliative stage of illness, pursuing full comfort measures is of greatest importance while providing care

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We also know that only 19% of people dying at home received complete relief from pain, all of the time. We know that too many people are not involved enough in decisions about their care and do not receive end of life care in their preferred place.11 Recent reports have shown that, in too many instances, care is not sufficiently focused on the person’s individual needs and preferences.12 13 This is not acceptable. Our ambition is for everyone approaching the end of life to receive high quality care that reflects their individual needs, choices and preferences.

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Providing palliative care, “care designed to give the patient as pain-free a condition as possible, from textbook” has innumerable benefits for the dying patient and their loved ones. It is important to acknowledge the benefits of pain management during palliative care, as well as the potential barriers to providing sufficient pain relief, in order for healthcare providers to provide the best and most personalized care for their patients. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies the following as a few of the aspects of palliative care: it supports dying as a normal process, provides patients a way to

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According to the Death with Dignity Act, patients are required to have three requests –twice orally and once in writing – before a physician can prescribe the medication to end one’s life (Dieterle, 2007, p. 129). The request must be made by the patient him or herself. In this example, proponents for PAS feel that as long as the procedures

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