Do nurses support physician assisted suicide?

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Do you support physician assisted suicide?

    • 615
      yes
    • 274
      no
    • 78
      undecided

967 members have participated

Earlier today there was a thread regarding Dr. Kevorkian's release from prison. Just as I was adding my thoughts, it got moved to the Current Events restricted area.

At that time, it seemed like there was 100% support for him. Honestly, I was surprised, especially since not everyone he killed was terminally ill. (I'm from Michigan, though, so maybe I know more about his history).

So I'm wondering, do nurses generally support the theory of physician assisted suicide?

Specializes in ER OB NICU.

I agree that the biggest problem is the term itself:SUICIDE> However, I had a patient with an inoperable brain tumor> He had not had his life insurance policy long enough for it to pay under suicide. He waited for the policy to be in effect, went into his kitchen put a gun to his head, and blew it off. His poor wife and children walked into the kitchen to blood and brain everywhere. HE did NOT tell them he intended to do this,but the signs were there. His pain was not conrolled, he was losing normal functions, and did not want to progress to the point of what he refered to as "vegetable"

In cases like this, there would have been so much more peace for everybody in a controlled situation.

And no, I had no problem w/ pt X receiving the pain meds...I just want to call a spade a spade...Hospice tries to spin the death as the disease process...That's an insulting take on the truth...The morphine directly led to pt X's death...

I'm just asking for honesty...

Ok, I have to state that I, too, agree that PAS should be an option for those who are terminally ill. Do I want to be the one who implements it for a patient? No. I've had the opportunity to do that in a hospital setting, and I could not bring myself to administer a dose of medication that in all probability would have ended the person's life earlier. BUT, I'm not going to judge anyone who could do that in a similar situation.

Now, I have to take offense to the above post. Hospice is not about hastening the dying process. It is about trying to alieviate pain and suffering. Sometimes that does mean you medicate until someone stops breathing. But this is not the norm for hospice. Yes, the morphine would contribute to the death. I haven't been there yet as a hospice nurse, so I don't really know how I'd deal with it. But I'm not out to 'kill' my patients sooner with lethal doses of morphine. I'm there to help make what time they have left as pain free and productive as possible.

I support PAS!

Specializes in Psychiatric.
from jolie:

"i don't believe that it is moral or ethical to assist another person to die, and it is my opinion that doing so degrades the professions of medicine and nursing. involving physicians, nurses, or any other "caring" professionals in the act of suicide creates potential conflicts of interest, and may cast doubts as to the motivations of the participants. (just whose interests are they serving by assisting a patient to take his/her life? the patient's? the family members? their own?) i believe that our professions must remain above these conflicts.

i marvel at the frequently-cited argument that we euthanize pets, and so should do the same with humans. animals are our possessions. they are not due, nor do they usually receive the level of care and dignity reserved for human beings. we would never leave a human infant unattended for hours a day while at work, but think nothing of doing so with a puppy. we would never take our poorly-behaved or non-housebroken child to the humane society for adoption, but we do so with our pets, and those that can't be placed in homes may eventually have to be euthanized for no better reason than lack of space. we would never choose to euthanize a child because his medical expenses outstripped our budget, but that is commonly done with household pets. so, i find this comparison between pets and humans to be quite faulty. fortunately, we don't regard human beings as property to be done with as we choose. we place a higher value on human life and dignity, which is inconsistent in my view with medical professionals taking patients' lives.

far better to make judicious use of life-sustaining technology in the first place, (ie not inserting feeding tubes in patients with degenerative conditions, not placing dying elderly patients on ventilators and forcing them to end their lives in icu, not intubating 22 week preemies, etc.)"

i agree completely!! thankyou!!

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.
Suicide is the taking of one's own life. Physician 'assisted' suicide is a just a euphemism to take the sting off the word MURDER-and, this nurse certainly opposes murder, no matter how the words are sugar-coated.

I have trouble seeing how you equate this with murder.

Murder is being shot and robbed

murder is being hit by a drunk driver

Murder is having war illegally declared on you by GWB

Murder is so many things

I Cant see PAS being equated with murder

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.
A number of posters have indicated that they support physician assisted suicide "under the right circumstances" or "with strict controls".

For those who have responded as above, what should those circumstances be? What controls should be put in place? Who should set the guidelines for assisted suicide? The medical community, the legal community, the clergy, the general public? Who should enforce these guidelines? What penalties should exist for anyone who violates the guidelines? Who should dole out punishment to those who fail to follow the guidelines?

I think that you are worrying this to death, not intending a pun there

This is a free world, alledgedly, therefore should we not be allowed the freedom to determine our way of death. Why should we have to have the permission of the Medical Community, They aren't dying. Why should we have the permission of the Legal Community, We know lawyers do not care unless they can charge a fee for it. The clergy, which clergy, Christian, Muslim, Hebrew, Baptist, Catholic, which clergy. The general public, the Great unwashed, The misinformed, the silent majority, the vocal minority. And who is going to dole out ounishment to me if I should commit suicide , what are they going to do, Kill Me. Interesting concept. Now it would hurt if they took away my golf clubs. I do plan to take them with me.

Originally Posted by Jolie

A number of posters have indicated that they support physician assisted suicide "under the right circumstances" or "with strict controls".

For those who have responded as above, what should those circumstances be? What controls should be put in place? Who should set the guidelines for assisted suicide? The medical community, the legal community, the clergy, the general public? Who should enforce these guidelines? What penalties should exist for anyone who violates the guidelines? Who should dole out punishment to those who fail to follow the guidelines?

Guidelines would be things like end-stage disease process with no hope of survival with a potential for severe pain or vegetative state. The guidelines can be regulated the same way as the determination of brain death.

dr. kevorkian was interviewed by larry king in cnn today and it shows dr. kevorkian giving injection to his patients. i dont see how dr. kevorkian's method and a criminals dying by lethal injection are different. isnt lethal injection illegal in michigan?

I saw something on tv years ago, not sure if it was a documentary or a drama. A woman with end-stage illness chose assisted suicide. The doc started a line and piggybacked the lethal stuff into it, then left the room. She visited with her family, and when she was ready, she opened the piggyback line. That's my perception of assisted suicide.

Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.

I do support PAS and I understand the arguments for limiting some aggressive treatments in terminal, or severely decreased quality of life cases. I must say, many times I have seen the medical community fail their patients with regards to giving accurate information concerning outcomes. I'm sure many of us have seen aggressive treatments being used on vegatative 80-90 year old patients, with multiple co-morbidities and very poor prognosis'. Or on terminal patients where the treatments may give a slightly longer quantity of life, but cause a significantly worsened quality of life. We must remember that the medical community needs to educate the family members concerning the effect of all treatments/care. When choosing to get authorization for these treatments, medical personnel many times either down-plays or doesn't mention the long-term consequences to the families. The Dr. simply says,"Grandma/mom/etc...must have this G-tube/TPN/ventilator/Chemo./surgery or they will die." What they don't say is that the patient may be saved today if they receive the treatment, etc., but that they will pass on soon anyway, and with much less peace and dignity. The families are emotional and most times cannot view anything beyond the immediate health crises, and cannot consider the ramifications long-term for the patient. The medical community needs to do MUCH better in this regard for the patients and their families. Sometimes good, old-fashioned common sense seems to be missing from medicine.

I support PAS with stringent guidelines. We also have to remember that in our "throw away" society, we keep the elderly curled up in balls, contracted, full of bedsores in nursing homes and think nothing of it. And that's ok, no one is concerned about morality or ethics in an inner city public aid nursing home.

I support PAS, espically when the patient is alert and oriented and does not want to suffer anymore or go througha disease process that will only cause pain and suffering. Human life is valuable because we are able to make the decisions that are best for us and we need people to help support and carry out those decisions.

Look at it like this - if you had a pet, be cat or dog, lying on the floor whinning out in pain, unable to eat, wetting them selves and not moving away from it because they can not move or get out side. Are you going to just let them lay there or are you going to take them to the vets and do what needs to be done so they do not suffer anymore?

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