Summary Of Case Twenty-3: The Nurse's Role In Dying

Kirnpreet Dosanjh
March 19, 2015
PHIL 4401-006
Instructor: Timko
Mid-Term Paper
Nurses Hand In Aid-In-Dying In the case study, Case Twenty-three: A Fevered Hand On A Cooling Brow – The Nurse’s Role In Aid-In-Dying, by Peggy Connolly, David R. Keller, Martin G. Leever, and Becky Cox White; the question arises that, should nurses be ethically allowed to aid their patients in dying? Ethical situations in healthcare come up but when it comes to who is allowed to aid in death gets a little tricky. In this case study, the Death with Dignity Act in 1997 allowed anyone who was terminally sick to end their life with a lethal dose of medication that was prescribed by a doctor. But what the author is looking at is to oversee of a nurses role in this
situation and if it is ethical for them to help administer and aid in the death for the patient. The most effective theory for this situation is utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill which is the act of a good leading to happiness and a higher human standard. The authors of this case study give valid points about why or why not should nurses help aid in the death of a patient. Nurses are the long term caregiver after a doctor sees them. Nurses look after the patient and get asked questions that an uneasy patient may have. Nurses are asked one third of the time to administer the lethal agent to the patient. How can a nurse simply give a patient death for she or he was caring and aiding in helping them recover? The authors argue that the nurses use specific skills and have the everyday involvement in patient care and everything else in the hands of the physician.
The American Nurses’ Association gives four moral and ethically objections that aid in suicide by nurses. The first being that the profession is built on the Hippocratic tradition of not to harm and moral resistance to killing another human. The second point being nurses have more of a social contrast with day to day society and is based on trust with patients and not harming the patient. The patient is putting full faith in the nurse. The third point being that moral mandates need to be preserved for the profession and honesty of the nurse need to be held. Nurses are not obligated to fulfill certain request that patients and family have. The last point being that there is a high potential for abuse.
In the case study, it seems like the authors use the theory of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism being able to hold the moral action that maximizes the most utility. John Stuart Mill is talking about the act of a good leading to happiness and not pleasure. Pleasure being bodily and giving immediate gratitude. While happiness of an act is giving ourselves a higher human standard.
Another perspective to see this paper is in the view of rights meaning minimal moral aspects.
This case study shows us different areas and legal, moral and absolute rights of nurses. Human rights being for humans and made by us and natural rights for divine and natural rights we are born with. In the case study we come across many questions of ethics one being what if the patient is wanting death and whether or not the nurse should honor the request. In the rights perspective this is a positive right because the nurse is assisting another in successfully exercise their personal right. Killing someone is not a positive right such as murder but helping someone through a legal end of aiding in their death and giving them peace is
okay.
The pros and cons of the case study are well seen and both theories give us examples of each in different views. For utilitarianism, the authors talk about regular harm and it being done through certain procedures like chemo but what makes that different from the administration of lethal agents is that it prolongs life for some in the end. It is aiding to save the life of a patient not just end it in a matter of minutes. If death is the last resort and last wish a patient may have because they do not want a painful death then there is an understanding because it is not always harmful due to the pain ending with their life. No more suffering for the patient. Different perspectives play the role of a nurse such as do no harm, trust, professional integrity, and abuse. John Stuart Mills talks about the action being right because at the end it promotes happiness and wrong action tends to promote the complete opposite.
Happiness is the also pleasure but in a different form because it gives us happiness over a period of time with no pain. This playing into the concept of nurses helping patients get their last wish of dying in peace. In this situation I believe John Stuart Mill’s theory of utilitarianism in the act of good leading to happiness being the most effective because at the end of the day it is all about the patient and their wants. Nurses do not want a patient to take their life away but because it is the last resort a patient may have and the only thing they can control is their death. Not all may agree with this theory but everyone has their different views regarding death but at the end health care providers such as nurses want the patient’s well-being and happiness even if they want a lethal agent to aid in their
death. All in all, in this case study, Case Twenty-three: A Fevered Hand On A Cooling Brow – The Nurse’s Role In Aid-In-Dying, by Peggy Connolly, David R. Keller, Martin G. Leever, and Becky Cox White talk about whether it is ethical for a nurse to help in the aid of a patient dying due to a terminal illness through a lethal dose of agents. John Stuart Mill theory gives us as a reader and analyzer a better effective role in this situation, leading to a higher human standard and greatest net happiness the patient will get after getting a suffering free death.