... Euthanasia: A Silent Plea for Mercy All over the world there are amazing technological advances in medicine happening every day, despite that there are neonatal patients suffering from painful life limiting medical conditions that have no treatment or cure. “Advances in medical technology make it possible to extend life, at times, the focus on ‘cure at all costs’ overshadows the obligation to provide dignified, humane, and compassionate care” (Rushton, 2005). In an effort to provide legal, humane and compassionate end-of-life care to infants, the Dutch developed the Groningen Protocol in 2003. Developed in collaboration with the prosecutor’s office, the Groningen Protocol was designed to guide a transparent medical and legal decision making process for parents and their doctors considering neonatal euthanasia (Catlin, 2008; Petrou, 2005). Neonatal euthanasia is the practice of hastening the death of a terminal ill newborn in an effort to relive their suffering. Most countries current laws make it illegal for the neonatal population to benefit from euthanasia. Research is suggestive that albeit in secret neonatal euthanasia maybe disguised and illegally practiced around the world. Legalizing neonatal euthanasia would not only allow transparency in end-of-life treatment options, but assist in the development of practice guidelines. In addition to the regulation of practice, transparency would authorize medical professionals to openly discuss the option for euthanasia...
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...ETHICAL DILEMMAS FACING NURSES ON END-OF-LIFE ISSUES BASED ON CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS HELD IN ELDORET, KENYA Author: Kamau S. Macharia: BScN (Moi), MSc (studying) Nursing Leadership & Health Care Systems Management (University of Colorado, Denver), Higher Dip. Critical Care Nursing (Nbi). Graduate Assistant, School of Nursing & Biomedical Sciences, Kabianga University College (A Constituent College of Moi University), . P 0 Box 2030 20200 Kericho, Kenya , Tel +254 722224577, Email: symomash@gmail.com ETHICAL DILEMMAS FACING NURSES ON END-OF-LIFE ISSUES BASED ON CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS HELD IN ELDORET, KENYA ABSTRACT Problem Statement: A conference to discuss on ethical dilemmas is thought to be a good way of airing out issues. It is unfortunate that at times a patient in our care may die no matter what we do. Profound ethical questions on end of life issues confront the medical personnel as they watch and wait helplessly. This paper touches on ethics, law, social and public policy as they affect nursing practice. Setting: This is a conference proceedings report augmented with a case study of Nelly from a local setting and compares it with two others from elsewhere which were also presented during the conference. Conference was organized by Federation of African Medical Students Associations (FAMSA), Eldoret 2011. The author was a presenter...
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...1.3 Bouvia v. Superior Court Dawnyel Donaldson Franklin University Healthcare Law and Ethics HCM742-H1WW (F14) Julia Matthews JD/MPH November 13, 2014 The case of Elizabeth Bouvia v. Superior Court is a well-known case in the patient’s right to refuse treatment. Elizabeth Bouvia was born with cerebral palsy, which worsened, as she grew older and subsequently caused her to become a quadriplegic. She additionally developed severe degenerative arthritis that caused her to be in continuous unbearable pain. At the age of twenty-eight her condition had worsened to the point that she was said to be bed ridden and completely dependent on others for her activities of daily living. Although she had many physical challenges she was a smart competent young woman. In her early adult years she had obtained a college degree and at one point had gone back to school to begin a Master’s in Social Work program. She was also married for a short time. However as a result of her inability to make a living and her physical disabilities she found herself in 1986 without a place to live, requiring constant analgesic treatment for her arthritis pain and unable to consume large amounts of food by mouth. Due to her lack of a permanent living situation and need for continuous care she checked herself into a Los Angeles Public hospital. During this stay her weight was recorded to be as low as 60 -70 pounds and she was unable to consume solid foods in any significant amount. As a result...
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...Ethical Health Care Issues Robyn Moses HCS 545 / Health Law and Ethics Professor Laughon March 16, 2015 Health Care Issues One of the current health care issues that I chose to write about is euthanasia. I will examine and evaluate how the four principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice apply to this issue. The most recent person that exercised her autonomy to choose how she died and the time of her death was Brittany Maynard. Brittany died in Oregon, a state which allows physicians to assist terminally ill persons by prescribing life-ending medications (Egan, 2014). Is the right-to-die with dignity by choice ever going to be acceptable in the health care community? Euthanasia is defined as the act of being put to death painlessly by refusing treatment or the withdrawing of life support to avoid suffering the effects of a debilitating illness or incurable disease. According to the legal system, euthanasia is considered murder when assisted and suicide when patients take their lives. In many countries, euthanasia is not allowed and is punishable by law. Oregon became the first state in the United States in 1997 to make physician-assisted suicide legal. Attempts to have the law in Oregon overturned have been unsuccessful (Britannica, 2015). As more consumers become educated on diseases and their debilitating effects, more consumers may choose euthanasia as an alternative to suffering. Autonomy is the act of making one's choices without...
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...Euthanasia Euthanasia - Deep sympathy for the suffering Introduction Euthanasia is the deliberate killing either by omission or commission of a dependent person for their benefit. Arguments against euthanasia claim that the concern for happiness and human life and not their obliteration is the objective of any good governance. They say that the terminally ill are people who require protection from social, economic and family pressures, and who are particularly prone to this pressure as a result of chronic depression, pain and effects of continued medication. Arguments for euthanasia say it is impossible to maintain quality of life if a patient is dead. While there have been massive arguments, debates and campaigns against euthanasia, this paper will seek to support euthanasia because of the moral issues that relate to the topic. This paper supports that when a personal is physically dead, the only reason anybody wishes to keep them alive is for their selfish clinging onto them with the hope of a miracle and the fear of closure without regard to the wishes of the person. It supports the practice of euthanasia and seeks to evaluate the reasons why euthanasia should be legalized. This paper will have a general audience because of the controversy that it sparks every time it comes up Death is a dreaded subject for all human beings because it signifies leaving the known to go to the unknown. This is the reason why by its nature euthanasia is a hugely hushed up topic...
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...from the Greek “eu-thanatos” simply means “a good death” (Perri, 1996). Passive (voluntary) euthanasia occurs when a terminally ill patient expressed his/her wish to remove life-supports and the patient is permitted to die “naturally” or “as a consequence of the disease.” Active (involuntary) euthanasia—that is the bringing about of a person's death without the consent of the person—it is almost always treated as homicide, even when the act can be recognized as producing a "merciful death" (Larue, 1999). It is often argued that doctors are justified in allowing their patients to die by withdrawing or withholding treatment, but are not justified in killing them. Although, active and passive euthanasia might seem generally accepted by the medical profession, at the same time, it is still broadly debated. As it is directly derived from the Rachels’s article, the debate revolves around the following statement: “it is permissible, at least in some cases, to withhold treatment and allow a patient to die, but it is never permissible to take any direct action designed to kill the patient” (364). There is a debate as to whether there is really any difference between active and passive euthanasia. In the minds of some, the removal of life-support, or passive euthanasia, is defined as "doing something to terminate life" (Larue, 1999). At the same time, "passive euthanasia" has become a term serving only to deny responsibility and perhaps to allow the medical staff and the physicians from...
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........................................... 5 Research Objectives .................................................................................................................... 5 Main objective..................................................................................................................... 5 Secondary Objectives........................................................................................................... 5 Hypothesis ................................................................................................................................. 5 Literature Review......................................................................................................................... 5 Arguments for withdrawing pension funds early...
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...Topic: Discuss the notion of futility of medical intervention especially in cases of terminal ill patients. Since the development of new medical knowledge, medicine has been able to keep terminally ill patients alive for longer periods of time without improving or curing their underlying disease condition. The widespread of use of artificial feeding and nutrition and ventilator support etc has meant that patients diagnosed with cancer, coronary artery disease, kidney failure and other life-threatening conditions no longer regard their diagnoses as fatal. Yet life-sustaining interventions have sometimes been a double-edged sword. Although patients live longer, they may find themselves confined to hospitals and intensive care units, where they are sedated and unable to interact meaningfully or to obtain comfort and support from the company of others but what does futility mean? Futility in medicine is an ancient concept. Hippocrates (460 BC-370 BC) clearly stated that physicians should “refuse to treat those who are overmastered by their disease, realizing that in such cases medicine is powerless. Webster’s dictionary defines futile as “serving no useful purpose, completely ineffective”. The word futile refers to a specific action, whereas futility is the relationship between an action and a desired goal. “Futile” should not be used to refer to a patient, or to care, as this may convey the impression that the patient is being abandoned or that comfort measures will no...
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...Death, dying and other ethical dilemmas Anand Chatoorgoon University of Phoenix Death, dying and other ethical dilemmas are issues that all Intensive Care Units (ICUs) throughout the world have to face and address. In the Current Opinion in Critical Care, Vol 16, No 6, December 2010, p. 640, Dixon-Woods and Bosk, writing on the topic of “Death, dying and other ethical dilemmas” under the journal’s section of ‘Ethical, legal and organizational issues in the ICU’, have stated that “Recent ethnographic work suggests that ethical dilemmas associated with end-of-life care in ICU clearly persist, even if clinicians are now more open about patients’ chances of surviving. An Australian study identified how decisions and actions made outside the ICU—such as proceeding with surgical procedures with very poor prognosis or admitting moribund patients who had sustained severe respiratory or cardiac arrest—led to a higher than expected rate of non-booked admissions. Staff believed these to be the result of futile interventions by staff outside the ICU that then resulted in ICU staff having to manage the patient and family through the dying process. ICU staff believed that this practice was detrimental to families by offering false hope of recovery, and that they were left to ‘clear up the unfinished work of medical staff’. Other studies have also documented the problems faced by staff confronted by patients whose potential for recovery is, at best, marginal, or when patients’...
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... 22 Conclusion 25 References 26 Appendix 27 Glossary of terms CPR: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. DNACPR: Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. NMC: Nursing & Midwifery Council. GMC: General Medical Council. BMA: British Medical Association. GP: General Practitioner Introduction The Aim of this module is to encourage me to enhance my personal and professional skills, to increase the efficacy of patient care and interaction. Also to make me more aware of the legal, professional and ethical implications of practice. The module allowed me to further develop my knowledge of these topics: Ethics & Accountability, Legal Aspects of Practice, finally Accountability & Professional Practice. I was then asked to submit an essay of 4500 words based on the following: “Critically analyse an aspect of care from your practice setting that encompasses the ethical, professional & legal role of the nurse. Issues of accountability should be incorporated into this essay”. Aspect of care The aspect of care I have chosen to include in my essay is the “Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR)” Adult Policy 2010 (please see Appendix 1). I decided to choose this topic as there was a situation on my ward recently where a patient discovered a DNACPR form in the front of her nursing notes. The patient was very upset as she was not aware of this decision. She was an elderly lady with end stage Chronic Obstructive...
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... cultural differences, religion, personal beliefs, individual preferences and choices etc can all affect care needs and social practice at the end of life. People’s experiences of illness and death, as well as beliefs about the appropriate role of healers, are profoundly influenced by patient’s cultural background. This assignment will provide a brief discussion of the beliefs, customs and rituals associated with death, dying and the grieving process in the Jewish culture and discuss the associated theoretical principles of a grief and loss theorist named J. W. Worden. Also while discussing the challenges in applying this theory to the Jewish culture, in an acute care setting. Jewish cultural beliefs have developed a traditional system of mourning concerning death and burial. The Jewish community views deaths as an ending of life, rather than as a beginning of another. Jewish funeral and mourning rituals are centered around respect for the dead. The body is buried within 24-48 hours, so the soul can be returned to God and the body is never left alone until burial (Smith-Gabai & Ludwig, 2011). The body is not cremated, but left to decay in a natural process to return it to God in the best condition possible. Traditional Jewish funeral and burial rituals stem from the importance of honoring the dead and the process of life and death. When a member of the Jewish community dies, it is...
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...‘ordering’ oral feeding for Hillary while she is at school. The speech-language pathologist, John, is very concerned. He feels that it would be against professional standard to allow Hillary to eat orally. John feels that Hillary’s mother and physician do not have the student’s best interest at heart. Dysphagia Intervention in Schools As more students with chronic conditions receive their care in a traditional school setting, the speechlanguage pathologist is required to have a medical knowledge base for pediatric communication and swallowing disorders. Dysphagia intervention is becoming a more prominent component of the caseloads of speech-language pathologists who practice in the school setting. While this can be a rewarding challenge, scenarios in which clinicians find themselves can also have a more acute feel when managing a feeding tube and/or risk for aspiration. The “team” of school professionals extends to include pediatricians and pediatric neurologists as well as child psychiatrists and psychologists. Often, when clinicians perceive moral angst, they search for “the right” answer. A case-based approach in ethics illustrates that more often than not a single “right” answer does not exist. Clinical ethics is a discipline of bioethics...
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...Running Head: INTENT AND IMPACT OF PUBLICITY-ORIENTED LEGAL CHALLENGES TO PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE. Intent and Impact of Publicity-Oriented Legal Challenges to Physician-Assisted Suicide Elena Mikhaylov Student Keller Graduate School of Management – Online HS542 Keri Bahar February 2012 Introduction The word Euthanasia originated from the Greek language: eu means “good” and thanatos means “death”. In Ancient Greece it meant literally "the good death". The term euthanasia normally means that the person who wishes to commit suicide must initiate the act. The Oxford English Dictionary Online (2nd edition, 1989; online version Sep. 2011) provides the following definitions of euthanasia: "A gentle and easy death...[T]he means of bringing about a gentle and easy death... However, in today’s society term euthanasia includes both voluntary and involuntary termination of life. Euthanasia has many meanings. Except for involuntary euthanasia, all these terms are closely related because the victim requests the action. The only difference is who is actually committing the act, Voluntary euthanasia is a help to mentally competent person to die through the assistance of others and can be divided in two categories. Passive Euthanasia means causing the death of a person by withdrawing some form of support and letting nature take its course. For example: removing life support, stopping medical procedures, stopping food and water and allowing the...
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...The purpose of this document is to discuss interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication is found in various aspects of life. How we communicate in most cases makes up what other people think and observe of us. Poor communication often is the main problem in a troubled relationship, both professional and personal. To better understand communication a person must acknowledge many different aspects, including speech, body language, and context. Context, the time, place, or occasion when communication is encoded, has a very large role in transmitting a message. Without the right context, a message could be perceived as the opposite as it was intended. The best way to begin to understand the communication process is to understand the interactive communication model. First, there is a sender who encodes a message to the receiver. Noise interfering with the communication of a message is called a channel. The receiver then decodes this message depending on the context of the situation, and the speaker’s credibility. 1. Discuss how the basic interpersonal communication model that is presented in Figure 8.1 can be applied to the impersonal nature of an online forum. The basics of interpersonal communication are represented in an online forum. A sender or the person originating the message exists in an online forum as does a receiver, the person receiving the message. There is a two-way communication as there is interaction between a sender and...
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...right to determine what shall be done with his/her own body. It is unlawful to administer treatment to an adult who is conscious and of sound mind, without his consent. In patients with Permanently Vegetative State (PVS) and no hope of improvement, the distinction between refusing life saving medical treatment (passive euthanasia) and giving lethal medication is logical, rational, and well established. It is ultimately for the Court to decide, as parens patriae, as to what is in the best interest of the patient. An erroneous decision not to terminate results in maintenance of the status quo; the possibility of subsequent developments such as advancements in medical science, the discovery of new evidence regarding the patient’s intent, changes in the law, or simply the unexpected death of the patient despite the administration of lifesustaining treatment, at least create the potential that a wrong decision will eventually be corrected or its impact mitigated. Key Words: Consent, Permanent Vegetative State, Passive Euthanasia, Parens patriae Introduction: Euthanasia is the intentional premature termination of another person’s life either by direct intervention (active euthanasia) or by withholding life-prolonging measures and resources (passive euthanasia), either at the express or implied request of that person (voluntary euthanasia), or in the absence of such approval (non-voluntary euthanasia). 3. Netherlands: Euthanasia in the Netherlands is regulated by the "Termination...
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