Ethical Issue of Assisted Suicide
The American Society of Registered Nurses [ASRN] ( 2010) defines "physician-assisted suicide" as the facility to a patient by a medical health professional of the means of ending his or her own life. Assisted suicide is an issue of great importance to nurses. This issue echoes their values and beliefs as a commonality. In the same time it calls for a clear and precise response as a profession, and challenges individual nurses to think about their own moral views (Daly et al., 1997). The history of the debate and the compelling moral arguments regarding issues such as patient autonomy, quality of life, acting in the patient's best interest or the right to death attest to the complexity of the issue and also suggest that it will not soon be resolved.
There is much controversy with regard to nurses and the role they play in the assisted suicide discussion. "A nurse may be involved in assisted suicide by providing or administering the means of death in his or her capacity as a health care professional, by assisting a physician in doing so, or by tacitly approving the actions of another health care professional by failing to stop or report a physician-assisted suicide of which he or she is aware" (ASRN, 2010, p.1). As a consequence, nurses are often involved in assisted suicide and thus need to be prepared to deal with the series of concepts that come along with performing such an act.
The American Nurses Association's [ANA] Code of Ethics for Nurses regulation for assisted suicide condemned this act as unethical and inappropriate for nursing care (King & Jordan-Welch, 2003). ANA's strong position is that nurses have the obligation to relieve sufferance but to cause no harm. However, ANA did make a clarification regarding patient's refusal of treatment which is extremely burdensome for the patient, as being ethically and legally permissible (ANA, 2001).
Despite the increased attention that this issue had received during the last 20 years, there is little written by nurses...
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