End Of Life Option Act Case Study

.“As medical technology continues to advance and health care choices become more complicated, the preservation of end-of-life autonomy is an increasingly important issue faced by various client populations.” (Galambos, 1998).

Understand the requirements of legislation and agreed ways of working to protect the rights of individuals at the end of life

1.1 Outline legal requirements and agreed ways of working designed to protect the rights of individuals in end of life care.

The patient is experiencing a major illness or disease within their body. All patients who qualify for this act are terminally ill and have six months or less to live. They have exhausted all treatment options or are opting to forgo treatment in favor of quality and not quantity of life. The medications administered to facilitate dying cause CNS depression which lowers the heart rate and respirations and increases drowsiness causing sedation and then ultimately death.

On a living will, an individual can express if they would prefer not to be resuscitated or if they don’t want to be living artificially on life-support. Additionally, living wills establish a written declaration of a power of attorney, establishing a person who may legally speak on behalf of a patient who is unable to do so. Living wills are crucial pieces of documentation that are necessary for the dignity and wishes of a person who may fall unexpectedly into a life-threatening condition. If a person does not wish to live artificially on life support, a living will may be the only documentation that can secure their right to die with what they choose to be a dignified death. Unfortunately, living wills are not too common, resulting in countless Americans whose lives are extended long after they wish to live. In order to get a living will, one can either hire an attorney and have the attorney draft a living will or there are templates available that can be filled out and submitted for notarization.

Physician-assisted suicide is a controversial subject all around the world. Although it is legal in some countries and states, such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Oregon, Montana, Washington, and Vermont it is not yet legal in most (Finlay, 2011). People travel from all around the world to these locations to receive information. Physician-assisted suicide is when terminally ill and mentally capable patients perform the final act themselves after being provided with the required means and information. The elemental causes found for physician-assisted suicide include: terminal cancer, mental and behavioral disorders, diseases of the nervous system, disease of the circulatory system, and diseases of the musculoskeletal system

Patient assisted suicide, death with dignity, euthanasia or patient assisted death; whichever one that is used, they all mean the same tragic thing. The life of another human being is more than what comes to eye. For years now, everyone has been arguing whether physicians have the right to assist with patient assisted death. The man who started this epidemic was known as Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Kevorkian was a pathologist who assisted the acute and critically ill with ending his or her life. After Kevorkian spent years battling the legality of his actions with the courts, he ended up spending eight years in prison. Today, there are only 7 locations that allow physicians to do this: Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, Montana, Colorado, and Washington DC. At the start of this whole situation, doctors would attempt to use very high dosages of analgesic, pain relieving medication, to end a patients life; however, that ended very quickly. Shortly after that time, doctors would use the same drugs administered for lethal injections. Typically a three step process: the first shot induces unconsciousness, the second shot causes muscle paralysis and respiratory arrest, and the final shot causes cardiac arrest, which ceases heart contractions. Currently, doctors use a drug called

Physician assisted suicide has been a subject of much controversy in the field of healthcare. A physician’s decision to provide life ending drugs relies on whether or not this practice is legal in their state of residence, the patient’s competence, and whether or not they are suffering from a terminal illness. In a study conducted by Zenz, Tryba, and Zenz (2015), it was found that healthcare providers (physicians and nurses) would rather perform euthanasia on terminal patients over physician assisted suicide. Interestingly enough, this study also found that there is a more general acceptance of this practice than a willingness to perform

According to research, 66% of adults here in the United States believe that a doctor should allow a patient to die under certain circumstances. Physician assisted death is currently legal in Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Other states such as Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are considering legislation to allow physician assisted deaths for people with terminal illnesses. (Gordon, Serena). Physician assisted death needs to be legal because of how much it has evolved over time; it has many advantages, and the obligations that doctors are responsible

The Dax’s case study presents convincing evidence to consider and legalize the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment and the right to die. Patients, as under the informed consent have a right to make the decisions about their medical treatment (Harris, 2008, p. 198). Consequently, the Dax’s case has reasonable facts to believe with regards to informed consent that as a competent patient he is qualified and be given free choice over his life.

This article talks about the death with dignity act which was passed by the state of Oregon in 1994. With 51.3% of voters being in favor of the act, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician assisted suicide in the united states. The approval of this act has been regarded as one of the most controversial ballots in the history of Oregon. Many adversaries to the bill have challenged the bill's impact on patients as they feared that many patients would go to end their lives even if their illness isn't really severe and that many would abuse life and health insurance policies. The legality of this act has been challenged many times with some of them including when former congress and US attorney general John Ashcroft from 1997 to 2003

Summary: The article talks about the End of Life Option Act. The act was made so that people who were terminally ill could choose to die on their own terms. If they chose to take the option, they would be helped by doctors to take their own life. The article tells that the bill was inspired by a 29-year-old woman named Britany Maynard. She moved to Oregon (because in California it is illegal to take one’s own life) to take her own life after she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The article tells how the bill has made its way into the senate. The bill was introduced earlier this year. Once the California Medical Association stopped fighting the bill, it was passed in June in the California Sate Senate. Since then, the bill had been

Oregon became the first state in the U.S.to pass the Death With Dignity Act, in 1997. Since then only two other States, Washington (2009) and Vermont (2013), have passed the act. The act was created to give terminally ill people, that meet the eligibility requirements, to get a prescription that would promptly end their life when they feel is the right time. To be eligible to obtain this prescription a patient would have to be at least 18 years in age, a resident in one of the 3 states, able to make and communicate health care decisions for themselves, and diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months. Not only one, but two physicians must sign off saying that the patient has met all criteria to obtain the prescription

what kind of care they want near the end of life, but the final act did not include this provision as

The right of a competent, terminally ill person to avoid excruciating pain and embrace a timely and dignified death bears the sanction of history and is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.