1. Ethically, is brain death not as final as cardiac death? Why or why not?…
If I had a family member in a similar situation, I would have made the decision to discontinue all life sustaining measures the moment that I knew that there was no brain activity and no chance of recovery. I believe that it is cruel to keep a person alive when there is no hope of…
Conventional wisdom has it that medical advances allow loved ones to live longer, some believe that life support is only for…
I believe that the reason physician assisted suicide is such a controversial issue is because people don't make wills that tell hospitals what they want to be done with their body in case certain unfortunate things are to happen to them. This leaves their families arguing amongst each other and the hospitals on what is the right thing to do for the patient. Personally, I don't believe that somebody should be on life support if they can't even feel,think, or eat on their own. All it is, is torchering their body by making it stay in one position at all times. For example, the Terri Schiavo case in Florida, she was on a feeding tube for about 15 years because her family believed that she was still…
Their loved ones cannot make that decision for themselves, so the doctors must ask the families what they want to do. This is a horrible time for the families, because no one wants to be the one to make that decision. The families are ignoring their loved ones wishes on not wanting to be put on life support, and they are holding on to the hope that they will get better. The families have trouble understanding that if they do get better, their loved ones will not always be the same person they were before. They may be worse, and must live on machines for the rest of their lives.…
If a loved one is on life support, should you pull the plug? People have their own fate and that is what is set. In Of Mice and Men, author John Steinbeck depicts the fate of Lennie. But if they can’t control what is going to happen to them than a loved one takes the responsibility to choose whether they want to stop the treatment or keep them on the treatment and making them suffer . This is more of torture then caring for them and helping them. Mercy Killing is a justifiable solution, because it ends someone’s life that is either on the line or who’s ill and there is no way the will make it, meaning they don’t have to suffer.…
I don’t know how it is to live in pain and the physical and emotional toll it can have on someone. I cannot judge or comment on any person’s situation but a person should not be able to choose whether they will live or die. I believe it is selfish on their part to choose to end their life and should realize that dying will not stop the problems, pains, or sufferings. It will stop on their part because they will not be here to live it but it would not stop for the family and can even get worse with the death of that person. Medicine and technology are highly advanced and can cure or reduce the pain of a person with a disease. There are many medicines and equipment used to ease, stop and even prevent pain. When a person is choosing to end their life they are basically planning on committing suicide. People should look into the consequences it will bring if they do choose to end their life before even mentioning…
Who has the right to decide when to end life sustaining measures? Is it the individual, the health care provider, or the government? This has been an ongoing debate for many decades in the healthcare field. Advanced directives were suppose to be the simple solution to this dilemma. However, this simple solution has become very complicated and has evolved over the years. According to Watson et al. (2010) end-of-life care highlights the following issues: competency, persistent vegetative state, living wills, best interest standards. Oftentimes people, including nurses have a difficult time speaking about end-of-life care. Advanced directives should be a legal document that allows a person to decide their wishes about…
In Acting to Let Someone Die, Andrew McGee critiques the medical ethics view that withdrawing life-sustaining treatment (LST) or life support is an act of killing in contrast to the idea that withdrawing LST is simply an omission rather than an act. He focuses mainly, however, not on whether withdrawing LST is an omission or an act but whether the withdrawal lets the person die or kills them, concluding that providing LST merely postpones death and its withdrawal just lets the person die of the original causes that initiated the LST in the first place. I plan to assess McGee’s discussion of the difference between withholding and withdrawing life-saving treatment, a distinction that he ultimately decides does not exist, and the idea that there…
“Ninety-five percent of critically ill patients lack decision-making capacity, and the decision to limit life-sustaining measures (LSMs) is among the most difficult to make for clinicians and caregivers.” (Journal of Critical Care, 2014.) Such a high percent of individuals are unable to speak for there selves when experiencing accidents. This is a prime example as to why you need an advance directive. If you have a sudden accident or illness your wishes will be acknowledged. As long as you are competent and able to express your decisions your living will, will not be used. At any age anyone is capable of being involved in an accident and you may lose the ability to participate in healthcare decisions about your own treatment if not stated beforehand. Effective forums are provided to nurses educating them on the importance of Advance Directives and “as nurse leaders, we must take center stage in educating the public about the importance of advanced directives and end-of-life care options, while simultaneously presenting evidence-based facts wrapped in a shroud of care and compassion to family members making these difficult decisions.” (Hader, 2005.) Nurses are viewed as trust worthy respectable professionals; they have the opportunity to lead campaigns on how easy and important it is to complete an advance directive. Lawfully and ethically this type of system is being and should…
Some may think that with the advanced care available today, they will not suffer. They are very wrong. “The people from palliative care reassured him that he would not suffer. He did suffer. Although he was in one of the best palliative care facilities in Melbourne, dying was a slow, cruel process,” (Edelman, 2017, p. 1). And, while palliative care, “‘Can help make it a little bit better,’” people are, “‘Still going to suffer from loss of strength, loss of ability to eat or swallow, breathe properly. These are things that palliative care is going to hopefully make it a little easier to face but they’re not going to take it away,’” (Tompson, 2014, p. 4). Most in these states are cancer sufferers, who are not doing very well and have little time left. In some of the worst cases, the cancer will progress and several rounds of treatment will not stop this. A scenario like this left one woman in a state where, “The cancer in her brain was progressing despite several rounds of treatment. At 68, she spent most of her day asleep and needed an aide to help with basic tasks,” (Span, 2017, p. 1). At the end, despite treatments and medication not working, most are still forced to live with morphine thrumming through their veins and a tube down their throat. One man who lost his mother stated that,“‘ There was clearly no possible hope of reprieve, yet she was still forced to linger...The whole thing just felt…
This maybe that they no longer have to fight, feel pain, or be what they feel as a financial burden to their families from the medical methods used to sustain their lives. The terminally ill also may feel some sense of dignity by being able to decide how and where they’re going to die. Families of children who are so grossly disfigured and unable to move and have a chance of a normal life may feel like they have given that child a way out of their later struggles. The families of brain dead patients may feel that their loved one in some sense was already dead by the lack of normal brain function, making it pointless to keep them alive by artificial…
Death is a touchy subject. People pretend it is something that does not happen and refuse to talk about or address it. I am an ICU nurse. I have been for six years. I have dealt with plenty of death, in my own way. Death is a part of life. Whether it is something that is expected or not, it is our destiny. Having dealt with the suicide of my son’s father at a young age, death is something most of us avoid or do not expect. One is never prepared for it. Some refuse to accept it and move forward.Whether it is a loved one battling cancer for multiple years or a sudden suicide/death, it is never acceptable. Working in the ICU, I have seen many a prolonged death. Family members are never prepared for the death of a loved one. Whether or not my patient is ready to move on, family will do everything possible to prolong the death in hopes that the patient’s condition will improve or a “new” cure will save their lives. I have gone through spending an hour resuscitating a 20 year old with severe congestive heart failure to taking my time resuscitating a 98 year old riddled with cancer. Regardless of my beliefs, it is never easy for family members to accept their loved ones are no longer among us. I have mixed views about death regarding a person battling cancer. Many a times I have had a patient who is a “full code,” all life saving efforts to be attempted, that has metastasis of cancer to their liver, brain, and bones requesting all life saving efforts. In the medical community, we know life saving efforts are futile. The patient is in so much pain they can hardly stand it. They have no quality of life. Family members are hopeful that some medication will take effect and the cancer will disappear. But, by law, we are to make every effort possible at resuscitation. If a person has a good prognosis in surviving cancer, every effort should be made to prolong the person’s life. If the cancer has metastized and is now affecting other organs, brain, bone…
Terminal illnesses such as cancer not only affect the patient, but the families of the patients suffer as well. Medicine can only do so much and when it doesn't work like it should the family has to see their loved one suffer unnecessarily. Often that is the last memory they have of their loved one and it should be a good memory instead of a bad one. If chronically ill patients could choose to die they could have their families with them to say goodbye and be at peace about every thing. There would be no regrets or what ifs.…
When it comes to looking at the choice of life support for a person who is ill, the same questions as the ones used in the organ donation example about are asked. It seems that no new questions with regard to organ donation ever come to rise, just an alternate form of the questions that are stated above. The most commonly asked question with this medical advance seems to be that of whether or not the person on life support should have a say as to whether or not they want to be kept alive by a machine, and Is it morally wrong to keep one alive on a machine when…