Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Choice “Does a man, in addition to the right to live, have a right to die? More specifically, does he have a right to a dignified death?” (Banović, Turanjanin, & Miloradović, 2017). These questions are the main reason why Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) has been such a long-standing controversial issue. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, physician assisted suicide is defined as “ suicide by a patient facilitated by means or by information provided by a physician aware of patient’s intent” (2017). Oregon paved the way with legalizing PAS with “the Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) in 1994, and it became law in 1997” (Blanke, Leblanc, Hershman, Ellis & Meyskens, 2017, p. E2). There are strong opinions whether

First of all, there are strict regulations and guidelines that must be followed before the patient may receive the life-ending medication. For starters, there is a strict criterion regarding the patient’s diagnosis that must be met before that patient would be able to start the request process. This means that not every patient suffering from an illness will qualify and is only meant for extreme circumstances. The patient must also “make 2 oral requests and 1 written request for PAD, over a minimum period of 15 days” (Blanke, Leblanc, Hershman, Ellis & Meyskens, 2017, p. E2). According to Quill and Miller, the physician needs “to look for alternate ways to better address the associated suffering, but ultimately to listen to the patient who should be in charge of his life and his body” (Quill & Miller, 2014, p. 249). The argument is that patients who are diagnosed with a terminal illness will begin to deteriorate with symptoms of the disease and the quality of life will be greatly diminished. Along with a reduced quality of life, most patients with a diagnosis like this will become completely dependant for their care. This can cause a great strain on a patient’s family, financially, emotionally and

Again, no judgments would be made, but I would provide a neutral stance and just be there to listen. I would do everything in my scope of practice to alleviate their suffering and make them as comfortable as possible. According to Zerwekh and Garneau, “ a lethal dose may be ordered by the physician for the nurse to administer” (2015, p. 437). In this case, I would make sure I was following the law, any rules set in place by my employer and follow through with the patient’s wish and the physician’s orders. It is my job as a nurse to provide the best patient care to every patient and let each patient make decisions about their health and course of treatment. Though I may not encounter a person contemplating physician-assisted suicide, I will encounter patients who are terminal and who will be dealing with death and dying. There will be points in my career that I face patients who have been fighting illnesses for long periods of time. Patients decide to stop their coarse of treatment if they feel that they are tired of fighting or the side effects of the treatment are not going to give them the quality of life they want for the remainder of their life. In this case, they are not choosing physician assisted suicide, but they are choosing to let the illness run its coarse and most likely die sooner than they would with