Medical professionals encounter many ethical issues that demand their moral personalities and responsibilities to ensure that the outcome is morally upright. End of life care, for instance, is an issue that has since garnered debate not only in the healthcare setting but also in public. Issues such as euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are still unresolved matters in the hospital even though the physicians and nurses confront them anytime they occur in their line of duty. Even with numerous states in the United States passing laws to allow euthanasia and assisted suicide, the issues still give nurses and many physicians a lot of problems based on the ethical ground that is still unsolved. With the rising cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide as an end of life ethical issues in the healthcare, permitting both the assisted suicide and euthanasia is still not an option because there are other options that the nurses and physicians need to exploit to save life and not to rush to decisions that terminate a patient’s life.
The Description of the Ethical Issue
At the end of life care, nurses sometimes have to deal with a lot of ethical issues that are attached to the patients’ request to terminate their lives. There are two options available for a patient that requests to have a dignified death. First, such a patient may require euthanasia. It is a situation where the doctor or physician painlessly ends the patients' life. The medical staff can either decide to use voluntary or involuntary euthanasia ( Guardia et al., 2018). Voluntary euthanasia is where the medical staff consent the patient, while involuntary euthanasia is where the medical staff carries out the process without consenting the patient due to their perceived inability to consent or their medical conditions.
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The medical staff also has the option to use either active or passive euthanasia as a way of terminating the patient’s life. Passive euthanasia is where the medical staff will withhold or withdraw the life-supporting machine to allow the patient to die while active euthanasia is where the medical staff will use lethal injection or drug to kill the patient. Physician-assisted, on the other hand, is where the physician assists by advising the patient on the type of drug to take, but the patient acts. In the current healthcare setting, many people are opposed to the idea of killing a patient in the name of a dignified death. However, others see it as a good away to grant the patient their wish. The burden is on the nurses and medical staff that sometimes are forced to perform this process against their moral wishes. It is a significant ethical dilemma in the healthcare sector.
Position on the Ethical Issue
It is right that, to some extent, it becomes emotional to view a patient suffering from an illness, yet all optional are exhausted to help them recover. It also becomes much painful when a person who is about to die, and there is a certainty that the chances of survival are minimal, is kept in the hospital and watched as they struggle with chronic pain yet there is an option that can hasten their death and relive them the pain. However, there is no point in killing patients claiming that unless the available positions are exhausted.
Defense of the position
Numerous reasons need consideration before allowing the physician to be free to conduct euthanasia or give advice on the medication to end life. First, there is the morality of the nurse of the physician conducting the euthanasia. According to research by Rainer, Schneider & Lorenz (2018) on the nurses' opinion about euthanasia, the researcher reveals that some nurses have strong and varied moral convictions. In this sense, they find it challenging to initiate a process of killing a patient unless they believe it is right. The research study reveals that some of these nurses believe in their religion and also their moral conviction that ending life is not correct. However, permitting these procedures means that in some situations, the nurses will be going against their wishes as they will be forced to indulge in actions that are against their morality. Also, there is an option for the end of life care. A research by Huang et al., (2018). Reveal that there are 5% chances of survival when a patient undergoes a life support situation. However, when the option of suicide and euthanasia is made available, most of the physicians will not be trying the alternatives, and this will lead to a massive number of deaths in the hospital. Also, there is a need to consider those who sometimes are forced to die yet; there is no consent. The ethical theory of non-maleficence claims that as a nurse, there is a need to avoid harm. The maleficence moral principle also claims that a nurse should try to prevent the activities that expose the patient to injuries. Note that there is a situation where the patient has to undergo euthanasia when there is no consent. The problem, in this case, is that the patient may not have consented if they were to do so, and yet they face death against their wishes.
Opposition point of view
Other people have different arguments on this case and pinpoint the ethical principle of autonomy. It is a principle that claims that a nurse needs to respect the patients’ views and inner convictions. They claim that since a patient request such action, denying them will be against their ethical principle of autonomy. The opposition also points to the moral principle of consequentialism. It is an ethical principle that claims that the result matter than the action. In this sense, they claim that nurses need to value the result, which is to eliminate pain than the process, which is to advise the patient on a killer drug or use lethal injection to terminate the patient’s life. Finally, some claim that it would be against the moral conviction of a nurse to view the patient suffering, yet they possess the knowledge that can eliminate the suffering ( Partainet al., 2018).
The implication to nursing and policymakers
It is evident from the studies and research on this topic that even though some states in the country permit euthanasia and assisted suicide, it has negative implications. There could be a high rate of death that could result from ignorance of medical procedures that can save the patient instead of killing them. The nurse needs to avoid any harm to the patient, and this is part of the practices. Since there are genuine situations where such actions, such as euthanasia, can be warranted, the nurse needs to understand that it cannot be the only option. Therefore, the policymakers need to draft stringent rules that govern how this matter is handled in the hospital. There is a need for a policy that acts as a reference when and how euthanasia and assisted suicide can be conducted in healthcare centers.
End of life care raises a lot of dilemmas both to the policymakers, the public, and medical staff. There is a rising concern on whether it would be ethical to conduct euthanasia and assisted suicide. Based on the research studies, there is evidence pointing a lack of commitment to seeking an alternative to euthanasia and assisted suicide in case they get permission. However, the opposition also claims that there is a need to respect the patients' choice. The best option, therefore, is to come up with regulate on this matter that guides the medical staff on how to go about it when they face this ethical dilemma.
References
Guardia, P. M., Montoya-Juárez, R., Martí-García, C., Herrero, R. H., Garcia, M. C., & Cruz, F. Q. (2018, April). Perceptions of health care professionals about end-of-life care, obstacles, and ethical dilemmas in hospitals, primary care, and nursing homes. In Anales del sistemasanitario de Navarra (Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 35-46).
Huang, H. L., Yao, C. A., Hu, W. Y., Cheng, S. Y., Hwang, S. J., Chen, C. D., ... & Chiu, T. Y. (2018). Prevailing Ethical Dilemmas Encountered by Physicians in Terminal Cancer Care Changed After the Enactment of the Natural Death Act: 15 Years' Follow-up Survey. Journal of Pain and symptom management , 55 (3), 843-850.
Partain, D. K., Sanders, J. J., Leiter, R. E., Carey, E. C., & Strand, J. J. (2018, December). End-of-Life Care for Seriously Ill International Patients at a Global Destination Medical Center. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 93, No. 12, pp. 1720-1727). Elsevier.
Rainer, J., Schneider, J. K., & Lorenz, R. A. (2018). Ethical dilemmas in nursing: An integrative review. Journal of clinical nursing , 27 (19-20), 3446-3461.
