Essay On End Of Life Decision Making

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze what we know about death, dying, and end of life decision making based off our book “Tite” as well as my own personal reactions and experiences. Some of the topics I will be discussing are religion, spirituality, socialization, lifespan issues, family and larger social systems, as well as the ethical and legal issues and their impact on end of life decision making.
To begin, I will discuss religion. Religion is a set of practices and beliefs. While that is the technical description of religion, religion goes much deeper. Religion affects behavior, decisions, and attitude which is why religion is an important topic to consider for oneself and when providing care. For catholics, last rites are a very important ritual. For …show more content…

An inability to access last rites would be very distressful. In the jewish faith, desecration of the deceased is a sin, thus autopsies are generally not permitted. However, in the jewish faith helping others is revered making organ donation acceptable where it overrides the discretion aspect. These examples show that religious beliefs must be considered as religious faith is often deeply rooted in an individual and affect medical decisions and attitudes.
In my own life, religion has played a large part. My family is varying denominations of christianity, with my close family being Free Will Baptist. Moreover, the general community I have grown up in has been religious. As a result I have seen the importance that religion plays in medical and end of life decisions. For example, one time my brother was in the emergency room getting stitches and while there a man having a heart attack was brought in. I do not know if the man survived, however I saw a priest arrive most likely to perform last rites in case. Of course, in my family, last rites are not performed, as according to their beliefs being saved is the only requirement and priests or

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