Palliative Care : The Standard Option Care For The Terminally Ill

A physician must understand that when it comes to deciding to withhold or withdraw life sustaining treatment it is ultimately the patient’s decision unless the patient is not competent enough to make this choice. I believe that a person can lose their life at any point. Death is certain and no one can run from it. In my opinion, a patient’s autonomy is of utmost importance anytime during healthcare however the physician can name some recommendations of what would be the best option for the patient. When it comes to patients they deserve to be treated with respect and ultimately be treated as an end not as a means to an end.

Physician assisted suicide or PAS is a controversial topic in the world today. But the important question is, should physician assisted suicides be allowed in cases such as: the patient’s suffering is far too great and there is no chance of them getting better? This is a highly debated issue, that has activist groups on both sides fighting for what they think is the right thing to do. Physician assisted suicides can stop the excruciating pain a patient is in, especially if there is nothing that can be done to stop the pain. Or it can be done for a patient that fully understands that there is nothing that can be done to save their life, so as not to put their loved ones into financial hardship. In this

Physician-assisted suicide is controversial in healthcare and political realms alike. Currently, this end-of-life option is practiced in five states within the United States. Social concerns regarding assisted suicide revolve around ethical quandaries; providing the means to a patient’s death is contradictory to ethical principles of healthcare providers. Political concerns surrounding the legalization of assisted suicide include disparities in healthcare that may lead to certain populations choosing assisted suicide and the stagnation of current care options. While there is no succinct manner in which to declare assisted suicide right or wrong, each individual must address the social and political concerns surrounding the issue when voting for legislation to legalize assisted suicide or pursuing the option for themselves.

Before I started this class I thought palliative care was only used as end of life care, or for when a curative treatment was unavailable or had failed. As we learned about the different models of care, and how they have changed over the years, it became evident that the use of palliative care has changed drastically over the past several decades. In the 1800s to 1900s, palliative care was only used once the patient had reached the dying stage, and only included the patient in this care, not their families1. Before taking this course, this is what I thought of palliative care as well. Since the late 1900s though, palliative care has been used in a more proactive approach. From the moment an individual receives a life threatening illness, palliative care begins. This includes caring for the family of the patient as well. This care increases as the patient’s illness progresses, and even continues for the family after the death of the patient. Learning this has really made an impact on how I would like to work as a

Why would anyone consider Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)? It’s a scenario that’s seen all too often—a chronically ill woman is suffering in severe excruciating pain daily and feels like she’s become a burden to her family, a lonely man is suffering with a life-limiting illness and has no family to offer any care or support to him. These individuals have lost their independence and feel like they have no quality of life left to live.

Supporters of palliative care feel that it is against two of the main ethical principles of healthcare to not recognize the suffering of the terminally ill (End of Life Care: An Ethical Overview, 16). These principles are beneficence and non-maleficence (End of Life Care: An Ethical Overview, 16). Beneficence means that the healthcare provider is helping or attempting to help the patient (End of Life Care: An Ethical Overview, 16). Non-maleficence means that the healthcare provider is not harming the patient (End of Life Care: An Ethical Overview, 16). Palliative care includes an around-the-clock pain management schedule. Those who “received early palliative care actually had lower rates of depression and better quality of life than patients who received standard treatment only” (http://www.WebMD.com). According to WebMD, a study was published August 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital which compared palliative care to standard care for lung cancer patients. The study found that those patients who received palliative care lived 2.7 months longer than the patients who only received standard care (www.http://www.WebMD.com). They stated that it could be “due to more effective treatment of depression, better management of symptoms, or less need for hospitalization” (http://www.Web MD.com). This study is a great tool to show how important the treatment for relief or

2. generally right to decide treatment: Patients generally have the right to decide their treatment however; others measures of treatment should be discussed with the patients. Patients should be competent when deciding to refuse treatment and understand what their options are, however; this should not include physician assisted suicide. Patients do not have to suffer or be in pain, there are many medical options to help the patient through palliative care that will keep them comfortable.

Thesis: When it comes to the topic of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), some experts believe that an individual should have the option of ending their life in the event that they have been given six months to live with a terminal illness or when the quality of their life has been vastly changed. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question whether physician-assisted suicide is medically ethical, would be overly abused to the point where doctors might start killing patients without their consent. Whereas some experts are convinced that just improving palliative care would decrease the need for someone to want to end their life before it happened naturally.

The majority of people in the United States, strongly believe that Physician assisted suicide, also known as PAS, should be legal. PAS is when the doctor is the one who assists, such as prescribing a lethal dose of medication (Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide). This topic has become an intense controversy in our country. About 33% of the country's population believe Physician Assisted-Suicide should be legal. The people should have right to end their life if they need to.

Is the role of a medical professional to ensure the health and comfort of their patients, or to help them end their lives? Since Dr. Kevorkian assisted in the suicide of Janet Adkins in 1990, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) has been one of the most controversial issues in the medical field today. While some view it as an individual right, others view it as an unethical issue that goes against medical ethics and religious values. Mr. H. M. is an elderly man who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and no chance of improvement. After excruciating pain and suffering, he has decided to request physician-assisted death in his home state of Oregon. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act (DDA) states that terminally ill patients are allowed to use

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families challenging the suffering associated with life-threatening illness. (Public Health, 2013). According to Gardiner et al (2011) more deaths happen in acute hospital settings, mainly the older patients die in an acute hospital setting. Therefore

Although many people are familiar with the term “physician-assisted suicide,” very few however, actually know what is meant by the term. The term “physician-assisted suicide” is one that has been commonly used among the

Palliative care is a dynamic concept changing with time, understanding of disease and evaluation of what constitutes quality of life and death for people with serious illness (Meghani, 2004). Palliative care is unclear and vague. It related to Hospice care, end of life care, and terminal care are the same. Thus, this paper is to clarify palliative care with another concepts by Walker and Avant's (2005) conceptual analysis approach is used as a guideline for analysis. The author performed a keyword “palliative care” search of 4 electronic databases including: Medline (PubMed), CINAHL, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. The articles was published with publication between 2007 to 2017.

I have always believed that health cannot be optimized through the treatment of disease only. Rather, health should be addressed on a biological, physical, psychological, social, and spiritual continuum. Palliative care addresses an often-overlooked aspect of the patient experience, which is symptom management of their chronic illnesses. Health care professionals tend to treat acute episodes of

Good post this week. Dying is a normal part of life, but death is often treated as a disease. As a result, many people are suffering alone, to die in the hospital. Palliative care is primarily focused on treating the symptoms of patients with diseases that threaten the expected prevention, diagnosis, and patients with serious or life experience, and to help their families is an important medical decisions. The ultimate goal of treatment is to improve the relaxation regardless, both patient and family quality of life for the diagnosis. Although palliative care approach to end of life and keen role of palliative care focuses aggressive symptom management and psychological focus on social support, unlike hospice care, it does