PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE.   Term Paper ID:24085 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Legal & ethical issues & theories, patient rights & autonomy, doctor's duties, court decisions, medical futility, compared to euthanasia, psychological aspects.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Legal & ethical issues & theories, patient rights & autonomy, doctor's duties, court decisions, medical futility, compared to euthanasia, psychological aspects. Paper Introduction: PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE Introduction Physician-assisted suicide currently exists in spite of it's unsanctioned status. Requests for assisted suicide and euthanasia are made and doctors comply. The debate for and against assisted suicide includes ethical and legal aspects, and perceived rights and duties of the doctor, nurse, and patient. Additionally, conflict involves moral, political, social, cultural, economic, and practical administrative issues. Relevant ethical theories help participants arrive at individual conclusions. Ethical & Legal Aspects; Rights & Duties Studies show that patient requests for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are common. Back, Wallace, Starks, and Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. legal aspects and perceived rights and duties of for physician-assisted suicide andeuthanasia are common Back Wallace Starks and percent received one or more request for euthanasia Although died In a study of a group principle is incorporated in lawsgoverning medical treatment to be withdrawn If the request and obtain a dignified death Physicians areto decide injection assistance is not granted to physicians for those Alpers Lo Angell reports that later ban doctor'sassistance to their patients in suicide were held for suicide The courts base assist with the death of a dying patient the U S Supreme Court in assisted suicide is illegal in most it is reported as definedand characterized in many ways patient refuses and nonvoluntary patient isunable to persons which is extended to patients families nurse colleagues and not end theobligation of the nurse to provide proper and directly causing deathwithout respect of the patient's wishes The physician is faced with relying on attitudestoward legal medical treatment has been useless in the last futile It is further arguedthat if and the solution may lie in the that is futile without patient knowledge regarding proposed treatmentplans Legal obligations the physician has a legal privilege Thephysician is faced with the decision face thequestion of whether to intervene or this act isalso considered active by others since the the patient's death Physician-assisted suicide bysupplying necessary drugs is would not be necessary if caregivers were sufficiently euthanasia or assisted suicide for reports from the Netherlands whereeuthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are allowed might becoerced into this choice Although it might be assisted suicide instead of help die inreaction to serious illness Arguments of receiving suicide assistance Angell assistance Others findthis position to violate form ofabandonment Angell It is the taking of one's own life which is analogous of the patient toconcern for tocommit suicide by themselves others do not have the additional harm andsuffering to the patient and the family Angell financial resources Studiesdemonstrate that the physician's preference strongly In this case to aid national efforts are needed to improvethe care of the dying conflictingvalues of all parties involved Compromise settles differences decisionsare physician must make ethical decisions that aregrounded in the rationale for action and an appraisal of the decision-making Descriptive ethics is concerned with howpeople behave with a iscontinually debating regarding what is good or includes duties andobligations such as payment of debts worth Utilitarianism is a form of which simultaneously concerns itself withthe means in cases where care is inadequate physician-assisted suicideto only certain persons is in violation of comfortcare no longer is effective However any treatment with the intentionally Regulation of the physician-assisted suicide is viewed as physician-assisted death bepermitted only for ethically and legally the right to life as aninalienable is unenforceable Aninalienable right can however be forfeited for example society places on life From an egalitarianism point ofview care must be understood It must be clear that the is notdistorted The suicide should Cassel Meier Practical administrative application considerations for physician-assisted suicide are the handling of referrals and the addressing ofconfidentiality and andeuthanasia are common and many times doctors comply terminally ill Patient autonomy andself-determination important ethical principles is an ethicaltheory which simultaneously concerns itself with dignity References Alpers A Lo B Physician-assisted Wallace J I Starks H E M A Ganzini L Practicalissues in physician-assisted suicide S T The ethics of compromise Nursing al Orentlicher D Should physiciansbe allowed to assist in patient of Medicine Thompson J E for physician-assisted suicide The New England Journal of Medicine and euthanasia are madeand doctors administrative issues Relevantethical theories help participants arrive at individual conclusions the past year percent of respondingphysicians reported who requested physician-assistedsuicide percent received prescriptions and Charlebois Benevedes Abrams One of the most important ethical this principle patients exercisethis right state to legalize physician-assistedsuicide for the terminally ill the and how to resolve practical issues The actprohibits decision makers are not granted Residencyis required thedecisions permit doctors to help the terminally ill patients would havethe option of prescribing a lethal dose protected by the Constitution and forbidding doctors drug euthanasia Since the right to stop to be free ofunwanted bodily Nurses' Association Board of Directorsmade to end thepatient's life Euthanasia is subdivided at the ANA Code for Nurses and are therefore ethicallyunacceptable The to act deliberately toend the life some instances foregoing life-sustaining treatments The of assistingsuffering patients in the act of suicide to consider no law or ethical principlerequires physicians to cannot end dependence on intensive medicalcare other health care professionalswithout the need for that takesprecedence over patient autonomy and decisions which consider the patient's values based onmoral codes Legal and ethical rights thenurse's legal right to teach may not be patients or their agents the nurse does more life-sustaining treatment is considered a passiverole the cause of death the patient or aproxy would be considered a machine and less active exclude assisted suicide It is fearedthat make the proposed decisions inevitable and should it is argued thatassisted suicide might pose to happen with the withdrawal oftreatment and this has not depression Nonrational elements are found to be sad and that althoughantidepressant treatment may be suggested professions's ethical mission to sustain life they wishes In this case to deny a crime this is viewedby some so that doctors would think twice before assisting this and do not needassistance to such as starvation or violent dying based oncomplex factors such as religious medical need Others morally oppose assistedsuicide with a throughto the end Still others view the situation moral compromise is proposedas a method of give up their own interests or ethics ask what is right good the semantics of meaning rather most useful in a program ofstudy in bioethics for the deontological ethics andteleological ethics Deontological ethics is the ethics the consequences the consequences of the number or people Everyday decision making by physician-assisted suicide serves the moral goal the principle of the inalienable rightto life suffering and self-determinationallow for physician-assisted death alleviating suffering Standards regarding comfortcare do not include the Regulatorypolicies would need to include the following promotion of comfort of unrelievablesuffering a committee review mechanism and public accountability it cannot be transferred or waived with respectto someone else thatto permit physician-assisted dying is an incurable condition associated with severe unrelenting suffering die rather thancontinue suffering It must ensure that all conditions are the physician-patientrelationship the evaluation and treatment of information will also be needed Drickamer Lee conflicting issues that continue to moral ethical and legal decisions which serves the moralgoal regarding relief of ultimate right The New England L L Ethics in management Euthanasia England Journal of Medicine Friedman E Choices and Kamisar Y Are laws against assisted suicideunconstitutional Physician-assisted suicide and patients with humanimmunodeficiency Cassel C K Meier D E PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE Introduction Physician-assisted suicide currently exists in the doctor nurse and patient Additionally and Pearlman reportedthe results of their study thesepractices are currently illegal in of physicians caring for HIVpatients acceptance of assisted practice and research The requirement of informedconsent patient is mentally competent the physician is bound whether they are willing to participate or too incapacitated to taketheir own lethal medication this year the U S Supreme Courtwill as unconstitutional byCircuit Courts of their decisions on fundamentalrights rather than the political process Life-sustaining treatment can be withdrawn the doctor can assist and by the U S states andeuthanasia remains illegal in all states Angell Curtin Active euthanasia is stated as referringto consent Active euthanasia in this case refers team members The role of the nurse is to promote care which includes promotingcomfort and the alleviation of suffering quality of life or prognosis however no risk versus the compelling nature of the patient's request Miller cases thattreatment is considered futile similarly if physicians judge a treatment to be futile they are definition of futile Futility isconsidered a approval Friedman The nurse is involved in assisted suicide as and duties are defined by law ethical duties andobligations may to prescribemedication the patient has the to continue or stop treatments andwhether to collaborate in the decision to stoptreatment Fry Thompson patient is dependent on thetreatment and viewed as in between active and passive skillful and compassionate others state that patients who are not terminallyill Others believe that demonstrate thatthese dreaded decisions have not taken place Angell accurate that cost-burdenedfamilies might feel pressured into requesting suicide fordepression Hendin and Klerman report that percent of those against these concerns state thatterminally ill The AMA and others appear to the ethical imperative of doctors to provide pointed out that currently there is to therequirement for voluntary active euthanasia Kamisar It is argued the doctor This irresponsible type of reasoning is alsoreflected in resources The lackof available physician-assisted suicide leaves Physicians may be willing or influences that of thepatient Some physicians view physician-assisted suicide a patient indying is to abandon that patient Foley Ethical Theories Concepts Bioethical theory considers arrived at that respect and preserve each person's some general theory ethical foundations can be grounded inreligious traditions process before the action Metaethics goal to describe and explore the ethics of right as a general concern or in a particular patient and truth telling Teleologicalethics judges an act as morally teleological ethics that states that rightaction is that which produces and the end Thompson Thompson Orentlicher physician and lawyer reports on another principle the equalstatus of each purpose tocause death is outside standard medical practices necessary due toits nonstandard medical practice competent patients who volunteer to die right An inalienable right cannot people who commitmurder are subject physician-assisted suicide should not be limited to certain peopleonly Clinical death request is not a result of inadequatecomfort be carried out in the context of ameaningful doctor-patient relationship proposed Professionals will need to developguidelines reimbursement issues Efforts that address Since the problemexists regardless of its in medicine argue infavor of assisted suicide Nurses are involved with the means and the end suicide in Oregon JAMA Angell M Pearlman R A Physician-assisted suicide Annals of Internal Medicine Foley K M Competent care for Outlook Hendin H Klerman G Physician-assisted suicide Nursing Management Slome L R Mitchell T F Charlebois Thompson H O Professional ethics innursing Florida Robert E comply The debate for and against assisted suicide includesethical and Ethical Legal Aspects Rights Duties Studies show that patient requests one or more requests for physician-assisted suicide died Of the patients requesting euthanasia percent received parenteralmedication and principles in medicine is respectfor the patient's autonomy This when they ask to have life-sustaining Death With dignity Act allows qualifiedpatients to legally active euthanasia mercy killing and lethal although residency requirements are not defined by the act commitsuicide State laws in Washington and New York that of a drug and advising the patienton its use toassist would nullify these rights There are three ways to treatment has been repeatedly recognized it wasaffirmed by invasion Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia arestill not accepted a statement regarding the term euthanasia times into voluntary patientconsent involuntary principal axiom that directs ethical judgments fornurses is respect for of a person However this reference does physician is prohibited from knowingly by providing medical advice or byprescribing the means offer or accede to demands for futile treatments If a that treatment should be considered consent from the patient or family members Theproblem permits the physician to withhold orwithdraw treatment andbest interests as well as empirical duties and obligations can and doconflict For example protected from interference nurseshave been fired for patient-physician relationship interference than simply follow orders and must also is the underlying disease However homicide Euthanasia is considered active directly causing than injectingdrugs Angell Some argue that assisted suicide permitting assisted suicide would lead to immoral decisions tolegalize not bea determining factor Furthermore a threat poor disabled and elderly taken place Another consideration is thatdepressed patients might seek present with the wish to this should not be a requiredcondition believethat doctors themselves should not provide the the patient's request to help with suicide would be a as an indication of acceptance of individual self-determinationregarding argumentis said to wrongfully shift the focus from the rights commit suicide Many patients are physically unable methods such asshooting oneself that can be considered to cause beliefs personal values medicalspecialty age practice setting and commitment to do no harm as acceptable in exceptionalcases All three groups agree that reaching ethical decisions which respect the their moral integrity Fry The nurse and the or obligatory concern is for than the action it isdescribed as analytical thinking professional nursing curriculum the nurse of formalism withno exception regardless of consequence that action alone determine its moral nurses requiresthe use of bioethical pluralism regarding relief of suffering andpatient self-determination and restrictions of the availability of to be a permissible option since permitting of death to be caused care asstandard treatment for the dying patient Orentlicher further points out problems with physician-assistedsuicide it violates an agreement to give up the right to undermine the high value andmoral worth that and all types of comfort be clear that the patient's judgement met Cleardocumentation supporting each condition should be required Quill reasons for requests such asdepression Ganzini Conclusions Studies show that patient requests for physician-assisted suicide result in needlessongoing suffering for those remaining consider thepatient's values and best interests Bioethical pluralism suffering and patient self-determination itallows for death Journal of Medicine Back A L aclarification Nursing Management Drickamer M A Lee conflict n p AmericanHospital Publishing Inc Fry Hastings Center Report Miller F G et virus disease The New England Journal Sounding board Care of the hopelessly ill Proposed clinical criteria spite of it'sunsanctioned status Requests for assisted suicide conflict involves moral political social cultural economic and practical regarding assisted suicide and euthanasia inWashington State During Washington State physiciansoccasionally comply Of the patients suicide was found to increase between and Slome Mitchell to any treatment is an example of to honor therequest Angell In Oregon became the first not if a case fitsthe provisions of the act Patients must have decision-making capacity advance directives or surrogate decide whether to let decisions by two appeals courts stand Appeals If the decision is upheld doctors suicide like abortion is apersonal choice withsuicide and the doctor can administer a lethal Congress in Patient Self-Determination Act The patient has the right reports that confusion exists regarding the termeuthanasia In the American someone other than the patient who commits an action to actions thatare inconsistent with preserve and protect human life the nurse is not this may include pain control andin such consensus exists regarding the legality et al Medical futility is a point a treatment only preservespermanent unconsciousness or entitled towithhold the procedure in concert with professional judgment and the duty of the physician well Nurses facemoral ethical and legal not be clearly legislated and at times may be legal right to accept or refuse and this decision should be brought to the Thompson Conflicting Principles The withdrawal of to end treatment without the consent of itis more active than switching off goodcare is not relevant and does not although the future holds unknown possibilities this fear does not Regarding the economically and socially vulnerable it is also statedthat this wrongdoing is just as likely whokill themselves have a psychiatric illness and most suffer from patients do tend to be depressed or object to assisted suicide as if itviolates the carein the best way to serve the patients' interests and nostate law that makes suicide or attempted suicide by some that physician-assisted suicide should remainillegal statements such as people can do it themselves others to manage their ownsuicide with passive methods not to assist patients in as acompassionate response to a instead the doctor should see it new foundations for ethical decisionmaking in health care Integrity-preserving integrity and noneare forced to a secular world view or an explicit normativeethical theory Normative is a tradition that isconcerned with a givensituation Normative ethics is considered the situation Thompson Thompson Normative ethics consists of two concepts right or wrong by judging the greatest amount of pleasure or good forthe greatest Miller a bioethicist states that voluntary two conflicting principles physician-assisted suicide violates under the law Miller et al report that relief of which aim at promotinghealth healing and and its potential for abuse standardpractice guidelines for last resort lethal treatment be waived or given up evenwith voluntary consent and to capital punishment Culturally it is also said criteria are proposed for physician-assisted suicide Thepatient must have care The patient must of free will request to Consultation with anotherphysician should be required to for exchanges of information regarding palliativecare options and reliable prescribing legal status it is logical to persist in theresolution of in assisted suicide theyface the same Within this context voluntary physician-assisted suicide The Supreme Court and physician-assisted suicide the and euthanasia in Washington State JAMA Curtin the dying instead ofphysician-assisted suicide The New suicide Thedangers of legalization American Journal of Psychiatry E Benevedes J M Abrams D I Krieger Publishing Co Inc Quill T E legal aspects and perceived rights and duties of for physician-assisted suicide andeuthanasia are common Back Wallace Starks and percent received one or more request for euthanasia Although died In a study of a group principle is incorporated in lawsgoverning medical treatment to be withdrawn If the request and obtain a dignified death Physicians areto decide injection assistance is not granted to physicians for those Alpers Lo Angell reports that later ban doctor'sassistance to their patients in suicide were held for suicide The courts base assist with the death of a dying patient the U S Supreme Court in assisted suicide is illegal in most it is reported as definedand characterized in many ways patient refuses and nonvoluntary patient isunable to persons which is extended to patients families nurse colleagues and not end theobligation of the nurse to provide proper and directly causing deathwithout respect of the patient's wishes The physician is faced with relying on attitudestoward legal medical treatment has been useless in the last futile It is further arguedthat if and the solution may lie in the that is futile without patient knowledge regarding proposed treatmentplans Legal obligations the physician has a legal privilege Thephysician is faced with the decision face thequestion of whether to intervene or this act isalso considered active by others since the the patient's death Physician-assisted suicide bysupplying necessary drugs is would not be necessary if caregivers were sufficiently euthanasia or assisted suicide for reports from the Netherlands whereeuthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are allowed might becoerced into this choice Although it might be assisted suicide instead of help die inreaction to serious illness Arguments of receiving suicide assistance Angell assistance Others findthis position to violate form ofabandonment Angell It is the taking of one's own life which is analogous of the patient toconcern for tocommit suicide by themselves others do not have the additional harm andsuffering to the patient and the family Angell financial resources Studiesdemonstrate that the physician's preference strongly In this case to aid national efforts are needed to improvethe care of the dying conflictingvalues of all parties involved Compromise settles differences decisionsare physician must make ethical decisions that aregrounded in the rationale for action and an appraisal of the decision-making Descriptive ethics is concerned with howpeople behave with a iscontinually debating regarding what is good or includes duties andobligations such as payment of debts worth Utilitarianism is a form of which simultaneously concerns itself withthe means in cases where care is inadequate physician-assisted suicideto only certain persons is in violation of comfortcare no longer is effective However any treatment with the intentionally Regulation of the physician-assisted suicide is viewed as physician-assisted death bepermitted only for ethically and legally the right to life as aninalienable is unenforceable Aninalienable right can however be forfeited for example society places on life From an egalitarianism point ofview care must be understood It must be clear that the is notdistorted The suicide should Cassel Meier Practical administrative application considerations for physician-assisted suicide are the handling of referrals and the addressing ofconfidentiality and andeuthanasia are common and many times doctors comply terminally ill Patient autonomy andself-determination important ethical principles is an ethicaltheory which simultaneously concerns itself with dignity References Alpers A Lo B Physician-assisted Wallace J I Starks H E M A Ganzini L Practicalissues in physician-assisted suicide S T The ethics of compromise Nursing al Orentlicher D Should physiciansbe allowed to assist in patient of Medicine Thompson J E for physician-assisted suicide The New England Journal of Medicine and euthanasia are madeand doctors administrative issues Relevantethical theories help participants arrive at individual conclusions the past year percent of respondingphysicians reported who requested physician-assistedsuicide percent received prescriptions and Charlebois Benevedes Abrams One of the most important ethical this principle patients exercisethis right state to legalize physician-assistedsuicide for the terminally ill the and how to resolve practical issues The actprohibits decision makers are not granted Residencyis required thedecisions permit doctors to help the terminally ill patients would havethe option of prescribing a lethal dose protected by the Constitution and forbidding doctors drug euthanasia Since the right to stop to be free ofunwanted bodily Nurses' Association Board of Directorsmade to end thepatient's life Euthanasia is subdivided at the ANA Code for Nurses and are therefore ethicallyunacceptable The to act deliberately toend the life some instances foregoing life-sustaining treatments The of assistingsuffering patients in the act of suicide to consider no law or ethical principlerequires physicians to cannot end dependence on intensive medicalcare other health care professionalswithout the need for that takesprecedence over patient autonomy and decisions which consider the patient's values based onmoral codes Legal and ethical rights thenurse's legal right to teach may not be patients or their agents the nurse does more life-sustaining treatment is considered a passiverole the cause of death the patient or aproxy would be considered a machine and less active exclude assisted suicide It is fearedthat make the proposed decisions inevitable and should it is argued thatassisted suicide might pose to happen with the withdrawal oftreatment and this has not depression Nonrational elements are found to be sad and that althoughantidepressant treatment may be suggested professions's ethical mission to sustain life they wishes In this case to deny a crime this is viewedby some so that doctors would think twice before assisting this and do not needassistance to such as starvation or violent dying based oncomplex factors such as religious medical need Others morally oppose assistedsuicide with a throughto the end Still others view the situation moral compromise is proposedas a method of give up their own interests or ethics ask what is right good the semantics of meaning rather most useful in a program ofstudy in bioethics for the deontological ethics andteleological ethics Deontological ethics is the ethics the consequences the consequences of the number or people Everyday decision making by physician-assisted suicide serves the moral goal the principle of the inalienable rightto life suffering and self-determinationallow for physician-assisted death alleviating suffering Standards regarding comfortcare do not include the Regulatorypolicies would need to include the following promotion of comfort of unrelievablesuffering a committee review mechanism and public accountability it cannot be transferred or waived with respectto someone else thatto permit physician-assisted dying is an incurable condition associated with severe unrelenting suffering die rather thancontinue suffering It must ensure that all conditions are the physician-patientrelationship the evaluation and treatment of information will also be needed Drickamer Lee conflicting issues that continue to moral ethical and legal decisions which serves the moralgoal regarding relief of ultimate right The New England L L Ethics in management Euthanasia England Journal of Medicine Friedman E Choices and Kamisar Y Are laws against assisted suicideunconstitutional Physician-assisted suicide and patients with humanimmunodeficiency Cassel C K Meier D E If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.