Death In A Terminally Ill Patients

Death is a touchy enough subject for people; add in the idea of assisted suicides and there’s an uproar in society. Euthanasia or physician assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in our society today. Physician assisted suicide by definition is “suicide by a patient facilitated by means (as a drug prescription) or information (as an indication of a lethal dosage) provided by a physician aware of the patient’s intent (Merriam-Webster). There are two modes of looking at assisted suicides; either it’s seen as an absurd immoral decision to take away the life of someone or it’s seen as a logical and peaceful release from pain and misery. There’s this idea that asking a healthcare provider to help you end your life is unfair and unnecessary, no matter how much a person is suffering suicide is not justified. People fear patients changing their minds, physicians being severely impacted by this, and families not agreeing with the decision making it hard to cope. On the other side people believe that it’s freedom of choice to choose to be medically assisted with a suicide; this is a right the patient has. Some believe if you’re in pain and dying why should you be forced to stay in a painful state of life. Freedom of choice versus life isn’t ours to take away. If you were in a terminally ill patients position, what would you do?

Life is a delicate subject to address, especially when it comes to the end thereof. Oftentimes, talking about death is a sensitive and therefore controversial subject. In America, citizens are allowed to hold and express their personal ideologies and beliefs, which has created a lot of discussion about whether or not it should be legal for doctors to help terminally ill patients peacefully end their lives. This is commonly referred to as Aid-In-Dying. The human experience is filled with many difficulties and sufferings. In the dreadful circumstance that someone is diagnosed as terminally ill, why would anyone want him or her to continue to suffer? When a human being is dying and experiencing excruciating pain, they absolutely should have

People tend to forget about the families of the patients. The families are by a patient's side constantly making sure they are not in pain during their last days. According to life organization "Surprisingly the drugs were given nearly as often "for the comfort" of the patient's family as they were give to reduce the suffering of the patient themselves... [Additionally] in four out of every five cases, nurses who had discretion in administering drugs said that they were treating the patients for the comfort of their loved ones." It is hard for people to see their family members suffering and in pain. According to this article pain medications are often just as comforting for the family members because it hurts the family to see their loved one in pain. With the help of doctor assisted suicide, a patient will be able to end their lives when i'm a large amount of pain instead of suffering until the end. This will provide families with relief knowing that their loved one is ready to die and not in pain. The families will be revealed of the burden and guilt if their last memory of their loved one is of them happy, not suffering facing death. This can be reassuring to families. Knowing their loved one died with dignity and was ready to die. An an example of a burden on family members is the Terri Schiavo

Imagine living with a terminal illness that causes immense pain and suffering. It’s likely that many of us have not given it much thought. It’s much easier to believe that it won’t happen to us. The reality, however, is that people are diagnosed with these terrible illnesses every day. So, what options do patients have? For many years’, members of the medical community have discussed the practice of physician assisted suicide. This would allow terminally ill patients, many of whom have cancer, to make the difficult decision to end their lives peacefully. Doctors are able to simply write their patient a prescription, designed to end a person’s life in a non-painful way. Doctors and medical personnel have struggled with this topic, exploring the various consequences and benefits that come with making assisted suicide legal. Currently, physician assisted suicide has been made legal across a handful of states in the U.S; however, many people continue to question the ethicality of this practice. There are many different arguments to explore for and against physician assisted suicide. Some believe that physician assisted suicide will lead to involuntary euthanasia, while others say patients should have the choice to live or die. While each individual conviction may seem vastly different, they do share something in common: Their concern for the well-being of others.

There is a lot of fear surrounding death in American culture. Terminally ill patients fear that they will be in pain and agony as they are dying. They fear their loss of autonomy and being a burden to their families and to their caregivers. Research has shown that patients cite fear and loss of autonomy as the biggest motivators to request to terminate their lives, either through self-administered lethal prescription or euthanasia. These patients often do not have adequate information about hospice or palliative care (Pestinger, et al., 2015). Diane Coleman is the president of Not Dead Yet, a group that supports Americans with disabilities and opposes physician-assisted suicide. She states, “We need to respond to the desire to die with the message, ‘No, how can we help you? How can we be with you?’ That’s the real compassion people deserve” (Ross, 2015).

The first aspect of this would be the patient’s physical pain and how they should have the right to die with dignity and in a humane way instead of suffering. It has been proven that end of life care is brutal and traumatic for many patients since they are forced to undergo long stretches of unnecessary treatments which only prolong their lives an extra month or two. But it’s not only the patients who agree that they

A person should have the right to choose what medical interventions he or she would or would not have implemented in a life threatening situation, but euthanasia and physician assisted suicide (PAS) does not align with the code of ethics that health care providers are sworn to and, therefore, should not be practiced. Research has shown that only a fraction of individuals who qualify for end-of-life (EOL) care options, such as hospice, have heard about what options are available to them. Patients who seek out interventions such as euthanasia and PAS only do so because they feel that it is the only thing that will end their suffering. If such individuals were well informed about just how comprehensive, individualized, and effective EOL services such as hospice can be, euthanasia and PAS would quickly move down on the list of possibilities. We must, as a society, strive to inform and encourage those suffering with terminal illness, not simply end suffering by ending life itself.

Terminally Ill patients across the world all want a way to end what they are going through, but not all doctor’s want to help them achieve those goals. The right to die is a patient’s ability to choose their own time and means of death. A patient’s death can be caused through injections of lethal drugs or even by taking them off of their life support by the request of the patient. Some people support this law because they believe that a patient should have the right to choose whether or not they would want a “dignified death” or a death not caused by an illness. The people opposing this law take the side of the sanctity of life and upholding the integrity of the medical profession by “maintaining bans on physician-assisted suicide” (Right to Die).

Terminally ill patients are often deprived access to experimental drugs as a result of federal government policies and regulations. Without access to these drugs, patients lose the opportunity to improve their current medical conditions. Members of the scientific community also lose the opportunity to collect additional data that could possibly lead to scientific breakthroughs. While they are the ones affected the most, terminally ill patients are not the only ones lacking access to experimental drugs. Chronically ill patients could also benefit from easier access. The current government regulations need to be re-examined to determine whether they are inhibiting research and the medical treatment of patients in need.

The main ethical issues in “The Sea Inside,” are the right to autonomy/self determination and quality vs. quantity of life. The movie mainly focuses on Roman’s journey of 30 years through the legal system in Spain fighting for his right to end his life. Roman believes his life is not worth living any more. His quality of life, from his perspective is but a shadow of what it used to be before the accident. In the movie Roman has a debate with a quadriplegic priest who comes to convince him that euthanasia is wrong.

A terminally ill patient should not be forced to stay alive and continue to live in unbearable pain. While some will argue that all pain is manageable, to continue to live life in a drug induced state is not a life of quality. This is where a patient’s right to die or legally commit suicide on his or her own accord or with the assistance of a licensed physician, comes into play. The acts of suicide and assisted suicide are not criminalized. Suicide in itself is a tragic, individual act however; the act of euthanasia is about letting one person, a facilitator for lack of terms, cause the

Doctors are known for being heroes. When your body stops doing what it is supposed to do, a doctor finds a way to make it work once more. from broken bones to respiratory problems, doctors save lives. Although doctors are able to change the outcome of a terrible situation, there are some things fate will not allow anyone to change. For example cancer has no cure. there are some cases where tumors may be removed or treated with chemotherapy, and in some instances, these treatments are effective. however for others these are no more than life prolonging acts at the expense of people 's quality of life. For cancer patients who receive the diagnosis of being terminally ill they have no choice other than to go through rigorous chemo and watch

If at any time I should have an incurable or irreversible injury or disease, which is examined to be a terminal condition as stated by my physician, I ask that procedures and medications that extend the dying process be withheld or withdrawn.

Great post! I agree with you that pain management is ultimately the patient’s decision. End of life patients deserve to have pain relief in accordance with their goals and within the professional standards of practice of those who prescribe and administer it (Reynolds, Drew, and Dunwoody, 2013). Family members should be educated so they can support the patient during this critical time.

Most adults diagnosed with cancer undergo years of treatment in attempts to cure that cancer. However, sometimes these treatments may not work, or the cancer is found too late in a patient to be stopped, and a patient’s cancer can be determined terminal, which means that the cancer can not be cured and will lead to death. If cancer is determined terminal, end-of-life care can be administered patients to control lasting pains, including shortness of breath, nausea, and constipation. However, this treatment does not cure the cancer, and will not prevent death in a terminally ill cancer patient. In some cases, patients decide that receiving end-of-life treatment is not worth it if the treatment does not prevent death. Terminally ill cancer patients may also continue to experience unbearable suffering, despite end-of-life treatments, as it is not always effective. These factors may push some terminally ill cancer patients to request to be actively euthanized. Active euthanasia is the merciful ending of a patient’s life through a single act, such as an injection. Terminally ill cancer patients should have the right to determine if they are actively euthanized. However, only patients who consider their suffering unbearable should have the right to be euthanized.