Dying with dignity is a controversy argued in two perspectives by death scholars. Some scholars argue that dying with dignity is expiring without unnecessary physical pain while others argue that it is dying in the socially accepted ways. Reaching these arguments was in light of changing health care demands and diverse customary practices. This controversy dated back to the ancient civilizations when many Greeks believed that taking one's life was better than experiencing endless suffering. This made physicians give poison to the terminally ill patients. However, with the advent of Christianity, the Hippocratic School that was against giving deadly drugs to patients acquired considerable acceptance. Therefore, euthanasia, as called in the fifteenth century was suicide and thus immoral. As time passed, reintroduction of the use of euthanasia continued, and it has even been largely accepted in various medical institutions.
In the perspective of dying with dignity as dying without any unnecessary physical suffering, doctors came up with the practice of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) also referred to as physician-assisted death. It is a voluntary ending of one's life by taking a lethal substance that prescribed by the physician. Supporters of physician-assisted death argue that patients have the right to receive aid to hasten their death. They also argue that, it is the most humane and dignified way to treat terminally ill patients who are competent to choose how they want to die thus considered as part of the last resort. According to the members of Compassion & Choices, medical paternalism is a coercive practice which results in life-prolonging practices that are insensitive to the patient's autonomy. According to Beauchamps and Childress (2009) autonomy refers to an individual's ability to make decisions.
According to Beauchamp and Childress (2009, p.183), several illustrations justify physician-assisted suicide. These illustrations include; a voluntary request should be made by a competent patient, which is persistent, preferably done twice within a span of...
While various types of medical/religious practice had long attempted to prolong life, the emphasis of these efforts beginning during this period was placed on forestalling death. Views of Death in the Modern Era The trends that began in the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods continued into the modern era, and though the increased rationalism and emphasis on the scientific method and imperial fact served society well in many ways, this has not
Field, Marilyn Jane & Cassel, Christine K. (1997). Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of the Life. National Academic Press. This work emphasizes the necessity to improve end of life care as a way to help ease fears about death and reduce anxiety which would create a more negative death experience within the nursing home. Additionally, this work shows the negative impact of over treating symptoms that are relating to
Denial in the Death and Dying Process Identification of the Problem: Denial and Subsequent Lack of Communication of the Impending Death Death is a natural phenomenon and has been there since the existence of mankind. In the past, people used to accept the death or impending death of a loved one easily because they knew that there was little that they could do about it. However, with the advancement in health
It is thus that he helps to establish the truly tragic abstractions that characterize the family's individual experiences. Where a broad, unilateral overview of the story might direct the reader's focus to the burial plot, an objective set of narratives articulated by the character's themselves suggests that Faulkner intends the story more as a lamentation for the living. In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner delivers a treatise on the American
Death With Dignity: A Right or Not? The issue of "euthanasia" is a matter of great controversy today. It is often difficult to judge who the "right" to die under the influence of euthanasia without the "power of attorney" should be afforded. Religiously, one cannot predict the "miracle" of God in daily life. For a patient to live through feeding-tube for the rest of his/her life in the hospital or nursing
Death and Dying 'My new body was weightless and extremely mobile, and I was fascinated by my new state of being. Although I had felt pain from the surgery only moments before, I now felt no discomfort at all. I was whole in every way -- perfect," (Eadie "Embraced" 30). In her groundbreaking book Embraced by the Light, Betty J. Eadie writes about her own near-death experience to help dispel the
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