Assisted Suicide Vs Passive Euthanasia

Death is unnerving. However, to those fighting unwinnable battles death may seem to be the only way to escape the pain. For the patients in agonizing situations, nurses are there to provide comfort and care. The patient and nurse form a unique relationship and, therefore, the nurse is typically the first person a patient deliberates the topic of assisted suicide with (Maher, 2007). This issue has been strongly deliberated since 1997 when Oregon passed a law termed the Death With Dignity Act. In 2006 Washington, Montana, and Vermont also passed bills approving assisted suicide, and since 2014 twenty-eight additional states have considered implementing bills that would allow physicians to assist in patients ending their lives. Typically, assisted suicide has remained in the domain of physicians, however, in the scope of nursing practice, it is still an issue that has a prominent effect on nurses and weighs heavily on their minds. The ethical principles in regard to this topic are deeply intertwined creating an intricate ethical dilemma for nurses. The question has become where do nurses fit into the equation of assisted suicide.

Current Issues Surrounding Death A hot topic in today’s media and in discussion is the idea of physician assisted suicide and end of life care. There are several legal, ethical, social, and political issues surrounding this idea, which makes it a controversial topic. This paper will discuss some of these issues and explore the idea of physician assisted suicide and end of life care in more detail. Physician assisted suicide is defined as, “suicide by a patient facilitated by means or information (as a drug prescription or indication of the lethal dosage) provided by a physician who is aware of how the patient intends to use such means or information (Merriam-Webster, 2015).

INTRODUCTION Euthanasia alludes to the act of deliberately close a life keeping in mind the end goal to assuage torment and enduring. There are different euthanasia laws in each country. The British House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics defines euthanasia as "a deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life, to relieve intractable suffering".[1] In the Netherlands, euthanasia is understood as "termination of life by a doctor at the request of a patient"". Euthanasia is sorted in diverse ways, which incorporate voluntary, non-voluntary, or automatic.

Threatening to diminish the value of life is very dangerous. Euthanasia, also called mercy killing, is the practice of doctors intentionally ending a terminally ill patient’s life in what is purportedly a gentle and dignified manner. The term originated in ancient Greek and means “easy death.” Doctors perform euthanasia by administering lethal drugs or by withholding treatment that would prolong the patient’s life. Physician-assisted suicide is also a form of euthanasia, but the difference between the two methods is that in euthanasia, doctors end the patient’s life with lethal injections, whereas, in physician-assisted suicide, patients kill themselves with a lethal amount of drugs prescribed by the doctors. Physicians practiced euthanasia

Legalization of physician-assisted suicide has been in discussion throughout the years in the United States. While many state and federal lawmakers have this up in discussion, the state of Oregon is the only U.S state were physician-assisted suicide is legal. Not only is assisted suicide illegal, the use of euthanasia is also an illegal substance being prescribed to patients. There are four distinguished types of euthanasia, all with different meanings that are mentioned later on in the text. Over the last forty years and counting, Pakes had informed that the views of physician-assisted suicide have been changing, and it is still ongoing today.

Introduction With reference to the question posed, it has been suggested that euthanasia may be defined as “the act of intentionally causing the painless death of a sick person”. In other words, it bears the meaning of a “painless, happy or good death” as derived from the ancient Greek language – “eu”, meaning good; and “thanatos”, meaning death. Due to the rapid advancements in medical treatments, patients are capable of being kept “alive” for indefinite periods of time. Hence, in order to distinguish the ancient concept of allowing a patient to die and neglecting them treatment, the medical community has encompassed the idea of drawing a line between active euthanasia and passive euthanasia .

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.

Chuc Tran T. Hollis-GInes ENG 101- Argumentative 23 October 2015 Physician-assisted Suicide The legalization of physician-assisted suicide has became an increasingly debatable topic in the United States today. The practice of assisted suicide pertains to a terminally ill patient who wants to end his or her life along with a physician’s acknowledgement of that patient’s desire to die.

Nurses rights on assisted suicide The Code of Ethics for Nurses in Provision 1.4 specifically states: “Nurses should provide interventions to relieve pain and symptoms in the dying patient consistent with palliative care practice standards, and may not act with the sole intent to end life.” (Trossman, 2015, p7). Assisted suicide is considered to be a violation against the Code.

Have you ever imagined one of your loved ones suffering from a painful illness? Have you ever wanted that person to die and rest in peace? This is called Euthanasia, which means the termination of a patient’s life who is suffering from excruciating pain and a terminal disease. Euthanasia came from the Greek for good (“eu”) and death (“thanatos”) “good death”(Sklansky, (2001) p.5.) There are more than four types of euthanasia such as active euthanasia, which means that death is caused directly by another person by giving the patient a poisonous injection.

Everyday I work with patients in the hospital from all types of different backgrounds; as a health care provider, constantly seeing patients who feel like there’s no hope in their life, is devastating. Euthanasia should be legal in the United States to eliminate patients from undergoing suffering from an incurable or terminal disease. Healthcare is currently in transition of allowing more states to be able to have euthanasia performed on them because patients are no longer willing to suffer from these untreatable conditions. More people need to be informed on this procedure, the risks of it, and how to determine if someone is able to get this approved by a doctor or physician.

Euthanasia is a complicated and controversial issue in today’s society. Such controversies can be politically, medically, or morally related. It is a large concern that questions and challenges our thoughts and emotions. Euthanasia is defined as the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, especially a painful, disease or condition. It is divided into two groups, active euthanasia and passive euthanasia.

Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering. Euthanasia is a term still new to many of us. It is a Greek term meaning ‘good death’. It means self-imposed death in a relatively painless and merciful way. Euthanasia is categorized in different ways, which include voluntary, non-voluntary, or involuntary and active or passive.

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.

The act of euthanasia, whether active or passive, is heavily obstructed in the medical field. Through medical ethics, the act of passive euthanasia is condoned by withholding treatment and thus, allowing the patient to die. Without any direct contact with the patient, the doctor is not considered as the cause of death. Thus, the medical field views passive euthanasia as of lesser and more permissible value in comparison to active euthanasia. In the statement made by the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association, they perceive this as contrary to mercy killing, as it is, the cessation of the employment of extraordinary means to prolong the life of the body when there is irrefutable evidence that biological death is imminent is the decision of the patient and/or his immediate family.